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CHRISTIAN  NURTURE 


BY 

HORACE  BUSHNELL 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH  BY 

WILLISTON  WALKER 

TITUS  STREET  PROFESSOR  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY 

YALE  UNIVERSITY 


REVISION  BY 

LUTHER  A.  WEIGLE 

HORACE  BUSHNELL  PROFESSOR  OF  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE 

YALE  UNIVERSITY 


NEW  EDITION 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER’S  SONS 

1923 


Copyright,  1888,  by 
MARY  A.  BUSHNELL 


Copyright,  1916,  by 
DOTHA  BUSHNELL  HILLYER 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


PREFACE 


The  subject  of  this  volume  is  one  of  the  highest,  in  the 
order  of  consequence,  both  as  respects  the  welfare  of  relig¬ 
ion  and  of  human  society.  No  apology  therefore  is  needed, 
for  the  giving  to  the  public  of  any  thing  concerning  it,  which 
is  honestly  meant,  and  thoughtfully  prepared. 

I  should  have  preferred,  on  some  accounts,  to  write  a 
proper  treatise  on  the  subject — which  this  volume  is  not. 
The  shape  it  has  taken  will  be  sufficiently  explained,  by  the 
facts  and  considerations  that  have  been  determining  causes 
in  the  process  of  its  construction.  Thirteen  years  ago  I  was 
drawn,  by  solicitation  from  others,  into  the  publication  of 
two  discourses,  the  first  two  of  this  volume,  under  the  title 
Christian  Nurture.  Afterwards,  these  were  republished 
with  another,  the  fourth  of  the  present  volume,  and  with 
other  articles  variously  related,  under  the  same  title.  These 
publications  have  been  out  of  print  for  some  years;  for  I 
have  preferred  the  discontinuance  of  publication,  till  I 
might  be  able  to  present  the  subject  in  a  more  adequate  and 
complete  manner.  The  present  volume  is  the  result. 

In  preparing  it,  I  could  not  easily  consent  to  lay  aside,  or 
pass  into  oblivion,  the  two  discourses  above  referred  to;  for, 
under  the  fortune  that  befell  them,  they  had  become  a  little 
historical.  In  this  fuller  treatment  of  the  subject,  therefore, 
I  have  allowed  them  to  stand,  requiring  the  additions  made, 
to  take  their  shape  or  type.  Thirteen  new  essays,  in  the 
form  of  discourses,  though  never  used  as  such,  but  written 
simply  for  the  discussion’s  sake,  are  thus  added;  and  the 


VI 


PREFACE 


volume,  which  virtually  covers  the  ground  of  a  treatise,  takes 
the  form  of  successive  topical  discussions,  or  essays,  on  so 
many  themes  included  in  the  general  subject. 

I  need  offer  no  apology  for  retaining  the  old  title,  in  a  vol¬ 
ume  that  is  virtually  new;  or  for  reasserting,  with  more 
emphasis  and  deliberation,  after  an  interval  of  years,  what 
the  years  have  only  established  and  made  firm  in  my  Chris¬ 
tian  convictions. 


H.  B. 


CONTENTS 


PART  I— THE  DOCTRINE 

V I.  WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 

PAGE 

The  true  idea  of  Christian  education  is:  That  the  child  is  to  grow 

up  a  Christian,  and  never  know  himself  as  being  otherwise  .  3 

This  principle  is  not  to  be  judged  untrue  or  impracticable  because 

it  is  but  imperfectly  realized  in  our  present  experience  .  .  5 

> 

/  I.  The  argument  from  human  evidence. 

1.  The  moral  incongruity  of  the  contrary  supposition:  That  chil¬ 


dren  are  to  grow  up  in  sin,  to  be  converted  when  they  come 
to  the  age  of  maturity .  8 

2.  A  Christian  education  based  upon  the  contrary  supposition 

differs  little  from  an  unchristian  education,  and  may  do 
actual  harm . 10 

3.  The  reasonableness  of  the  hope  of  Christian  parents  to  see  their 

children  grow  up  in  piety . 13 


4.  Assuming  the  corruption  of  human  nature,  it  is  wisest  to  under¬ 

take  the  remedy  at  once.  It  is  never  too  early  for  good  to 
be  communicated.  The  Spirit  of  truth  need  not  wait  for 
the  child’s  ability  intellectually  to  understand  ....  13 

The  principle  here  proposed  does  not  assume  the  radical  good¬ 
ness  of  human  nature,  or  conceive  the  work  of  Christian 
education  to  be  the  mere  educing  of  that  goodness  ...  15 

5.  The  child’s  true  and  loving  submission  to  parental  authority 

involves  the  dawn  within  him  of  a  new  life . 16 

6.  Children  have  been  so  trained  as  never  to  remember  the  time 

when  they  began  to  be  religious . 17 

7.  The  organic  connection,  as  regards  character,  between  parent 

and  child,  makes  it  natural  to  expect  that  the  faith  of  the 
one  will  be  propagated  in  the  other . 18 

The  mistake  of  believing  that  this  connection  is  effective  for 

evil  and  not  for  good . .  19 

vii 


CONTENTS 


Vlll 

PAGE 

The  error  of  an  extreme  individualism  which  virtually  denies 

this  organic  connection . 20 

The  very  idea  of  Christian  education  is  therefore  that  it  begins 

with  nurture  or  cultivation . 21 

Al.  WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 

II.  The  argument  from  divine  revelation. 

1.  It  is  in  accordance  with  the  revealed  character  of  God  that  he 

bestows  whatsoever  spiritual  grace  is  necessary  to  the  moral 
renovation  of  childhood . 24 

2.  It  does  not  accord  with  the  known  character  of  God  to  suppose 

that  he  appoints  a  scheme  of  education  which  trains  chil¬ 
dren  in  sin . 25 

3.  In  both  the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments  the  expectation  is  ex¬ 

pressed  that  children  will  grow  up  in  piety  under  the  pa¬ 
rental  nurture . 26 

4.  The  prophesied  universality  of  the  kingdom  of  God  involves 

this  idea  of  Christian  education . 26 

5.  The  Scriptures  distinctly  recognize  the  organic  connection,  as 

regards  character,  between  parent  and  child  ....  28 

6.  The  rite  of  infant  baptism  presupposes  the  fact  of  an  organic 

connection  of  character  between  the  parent  and  the  child, 
and  can  be  understood  and  defended  only  in  the  light  of 
that  connection . 30 

III.  Possible  objections  to  this  view  of  Christian  nurture. 

1.  The  theoretical  objection  that  it  leaves  no  room  for  the  sover¬ 

eignty  of  God . 36 

2.  The  practical  objection  that  many  pious  persons  have  yet  been 

unfortunate  in  the  character  of  their  children  ....  37 

(а)  It  may  be  through  failure  in  personal  example  ...  37 

(б)  It  may  be  through  failure  in  teaching . 38 

(c)  The  church  may  counteract  their  effort  and  example  .  39 

IV.  Practical  conclusions. 

1.  The  duty  of  Christian  parents  to  offer  their  children  in  baptism  40 

2.  Parents  should  make  the  first  article  of  family  discipline  a  con¬ 

stant  and  careful  discipline  of  themselves . 44 


CONTENTS 


IX 


PAGE 

3.  The  Christian  church  has  been  expecting  to  thrive  too  much  by 

conquest,  and  too  little  by  growth . 46 

4.  The  corrupting  influence  of  an  irreligious  parent  ....  50 

III.  THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 

The  figure  applied  to  practices  and  theories  of  church  life  and  con¬ 
version  that  make  a  true  Christian  parentage  virtually  im¬ 
possible  . 52 

1.  The  theory  of  negative  education:  that  the  true  principle  of 

training  for  children  is  no  training  at  all . 53 

Yet  it  is  the  distinction  of  man,  as  a  rational  creature,  that  he 

may  not  simply  profit  by,  but  transmit  experience  .  .  54 

2.  The  idea  that  the  free  moral  agency  and  personal  responsibil¬ 

ity  of  children  absolves  the  parent  from  responsibility  for 
their  moral  and  religious  character . 56 

3.  Notions  of  conversion  that  are  mechanical  and  proper  only  to 

the  adult  age . 58 

4.  Bringing  children  up  in  expectation  of  revivals  of  religion  .  .  62 

5.  A  merely  ethical  nurture  that  drills  upon  the  moralities  but 

stops  short  of  religion . 64 

6.  The  assumption  that  children  have  no  place  in  the  church  .  .  66 

Tenderness  to  children  in  other  respects  can  not  atone  for 

failure  to  provide  for  them  a  genuine  Christian  nurture  .  68 

Such  nurture  can  be  provided  only  through  the  true  Christian 

life  of  the  parents  themselves . 70 

v  IV.  THE  ORGANIC  UNITY  OF  THE  FAMILY 

The  extreme  individualism  of  our  modern  notions . 74 

I.  What  is  meant  by  the  organic  unity  of  the  family  ? 

The  family  is  such  a  body  that  a  power  over  character  is  exerted 
therein  which  can  not  properly  be  called  influence,  because 
unconscious  and  undesigned . 76 

II.  Does  any  such  unity  exist  ? 

1.  In  practical  life  we  assume  the  organic  unity  of  nations  and  of 
families;  and  this  without  derogating  from  the  proper 
individuality  of  persons  and  their  separate  responsibility  .  78 


X 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

2.  The  organic  unity  of  the  family  is  established  by  the  physio¬ 

logical  facts  of  heredity . 80 

3.  There  is  a  law  of  connection,  after  birth,  under  which  power 

over  character  is  exerted,  without  any  design  to  do  it  .  .  82 

The  true  doctrine  of  original  sin:  a  taint  derived  under  the 

law  of  family  infection  as  well  as  by  physical  propagation  .  83 

4.  Organic  unity  is  evidenced  by  the  common  spirit  of  the  family  85 

5.  The  organic  working  of  a  family;  the  moral  results  of  the  joint 

industry  of  the  house . 88 

III.  Practical  conclusions. 

1.  The  organic  unity  of  the  family  was  designed  of  God  to  be  the 

vehicle,  not  of  depravity,  but  of  virtue.  It  is  the  duty  of 
Christianity  to  make  these  organic  laws  the  instruments  of 
a  regenerative  purpose . 91 

2.  This  doctrine  of  organic  unity  gives  the  only  true  view  of  the 

Christian  church  and  of  infant  baptism  as  related  to  mem¬ 
bership  . 94 

3.  The  voluntary  intention  of  parents,  in  regard  to  their  children, 

is  no  measure  either  of  their  merit  or  their  sin  ...  97 

4.  Christian  parents  ought  to  speak  freely  to  their  children,  at 

times,  of  their  own  faults  and  infirmities . 98 

5.  In  their  society  and  external  intercourse,  children  should  be 

kept  within  the  atmosphere  of  Christian  homes  ....  99 

V.  INFANT  BAPTISM,  HOW  DEVELOPED 

The  relative  silence  of  the  New  Testament  respecting  infant  bap¬ 
tism  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
Christianity  necessarily  made  its  chief  address,  at  the  out¬ 
set,  to  adult  persons . 102 

We  may  easily  fail  to  take  account  of  the  modifications  necessary 
as  Christianity  passed  from  the  first  stage  of  mere  propaga¬ 
tion  to  the  stage  of  a  fixed  institution . 104 

1.  Certain  types  and  conditions  of  the  Pentecostal  scene  were 
casual  only,  and  inevitably  to  be  discontinued  and  replaced. 

(o)  The  communism  of  Pentecostal  society . 105 

( b )  The  physical  signs  of  the  Spirit . 107 

(c)  The  preaching  of  the  day  of  Pentecost . 108 


I 


CONTENTS  XI 

PAGE 

( d )  The  religious  festival  past,  the  disciples  were  called  to 
blend  their  piety  with  the  common  cares  and  duties 
of  life . Ill 

2.  Certain  elements  were  necessarily  added  as  Christianity  be¬ 
came  a  permanent  institution. 

(а)  Through  processes  of  doctrinal  interpretation  .  .  .  113 

(б)  Through  processes  of  practical  organization  .  .  .  114 

The  natural  and  almost  inevitable  development  of  the  prac¬ 
tice  of  infant  baptism . 117 

VI.  APOSTOLIC  AUTHORITY  OF  INFANT  BAPTISM 


1.  The  organic  unity  of  the  family  constitutes  a  rational  ground 

for  the  rite  of  infant  baptism . 121 

2.  The  Abrahamic  and  other  covenants  and  promises  of  both  the 

Old  and  the  New  Testament  recognize  the  religious  unity 
of  families,  and  the  inclusion  of  the  children  with  the  pa¬ 
rents  . 122 


3.  The  rite  of  circumcision  held  a  place  in  the  Jewish  religion 

parallel  to  that  of  infant  baptism  in  the  Christian  religion, 
and  made  natural  the  development  of  the  latter  rite  .  .  123 

4.  Christian  baptism  was  not  a  rite  wholly  new,  but  a  reapplica¬ 

tion  of  prosefyte  baptism,  which  included  the  baptism  of 
children . 126 

5.  The  propriety  of  infant  baptism  is  implied  in  the  sayings  of 

Christ  concerning  baptism  and  concerning  children  .  .  127 

6.  What  is  said  in  the  New  Testament  of  household  baptism  is 

proof  that  infants  were  baptized  in  the  times  of  the  apostles  128 

7.  Paul  teaches  that  the  faith  of  the  parent  carries  presumptively 

the  faith  of  the  children  with  it . 129 

8.  The  children  of  believers  are  addressed  with  them  by  Paul  as 

believers,  and  thus  included  in  the  religion  of  their  parent¬ 
age  . 130 

9.  Those  who  reject  infant  baptism  on  the  ground  that  it  is  not 

directly  and  specifically  appointed  in  the  Scripture,  do  not 
apply  the  same  argument  to  other  observances  familiarly 
accepted . 130 

10.  Infant  baptism  became  the  current  practice  of  the  Christian 

church  at  a  very  early  date,  and  is  mentioned  in  the  writ¬ 
ings  of  the  earliest  church  fathers  after  the  apostles  .  .  131 


CONTENTS 


•  • 

XU 

VII.  CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP  OF  CHILDREN 

PAQB 

In  early  Christian  usage,  the  term  “faithful”  was  applied  to  bap¬ 
tized  children  as  well  as  to  adults,  and  such  children  were 
accounted  members  of  the  church . 136 

I.  The  nature  and  extent  of  the  church  membership  of  baptized 

children. 

This  is  a  membership  potentially  real,  such  as  is  appropriate  to 

creatures  existing  under  conditions  of  growth  ....  139 

It  is  analogous  to  the  citizenship  of  children . 141 

II.  Reasons  why  this  relation  of  infant  membership  should  exist. 

1.  It  would  have  a  bad  effect  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  children 

were  there  no  place  for  them  in  the  church . 142 

2.  It  would  not  be  in  accord  with  the  spirit  of  Christ  or  of  Chris¬ 

tianity  . 142 

3.  It  is  no  breach  upon  the  liberty  of  children,  that  they  are  en¬ 

tered  into  this  qualified  membership  by  their  parents  .  .  143 

4.  Were  the  church  to  have  no  place  for  children,  the  conversion 

of  a  parent  would  operate  a  kind  of  dissolution  in  the  family 
state . 144 

5.  If  the  children  are  accounted  members  of  the  church,  the  whole 

office  and  duty  of  the  parents  is  placed  upon  a  Christian 
footing,  and  the  children  will  be  brought  up  in  the  nurture 
of  the  Lord . 145 

6.  The  church  itself,  having  this  infant  membership  in  it,  will  un¬ 

fold  other  aims  and  tempers,  and  exert  a  finer  quality  of 
power .  .146 

III.  Is  such  infant  membership  a  real  and  true  fact  t 

It  is  proved  to  be  such — 

* 

1.  By  those  declarations  of  Scripture  which  assert  or  assume  the 

fact . 147 

2.  By  the  analogy  of  circumcision . 147 

Z.  By  the  teaching  of  Paul . 148 

4.  By  the  reasons  given  for  the  observance  of  infant  baptism  .  .  149 

The  indirect  character  of  the  proofs  from  Scripture  makes  them 
stronger  than  would  be  the  case  were  they  formally  to  assert 
or  to  institute  the  church  membership  of  children  .  .  .  149 


CONTENTS 


Xlll 


PAGE 

5.  By  the  opinions  of  the  church  and  her  most  qualified  teachers 

from  the  apostolic  era  downward  .  . 150 

IV.  The  church's  duty  toward  its  infant  members. 

It  is  the  church’s  duty  not  simply  to  accept  baptized  children  as  its 
members,  but  to  give  full  practical  effect  to  that  member¬ 


ship  . 162 

Changes  of  practice  necessary  to  that  end . 162 


VIII.  THE  OUT-POPULATING  POWER  OF  THE 

CHRISTIAN  STOCK 

I.  God  has  instituted  such  laws  of  population  that  piety  itself  shall 

finally  over-populate  the  world. 

There  are  two  principal  modes  by  which  the  kingdom  of  God 
among  men  is  to  be  extended:  by  conversion,  or  conquest 
from  without,  and  by  family  propagation,  or  increase  from 
within . 165 

Our  churches  have  emphasized  the  former  of  these  modes,  to  the 

neglect  of  the  latter . 166 

If  it  be  true  that  mankind  are  born  sinners,  they  may  just  as 

truly  and  properly  be  born  saints . 167 

Regeneration  may  be  the  twin  element  of  propagation  itself  .  .  167 

II.  Evidences  for  this  doctrine  of  church  population. 

1.  The  whole  scheme  of  organic  unity  in  the  family  and  of  family 

grace  in  the  church  evidences  a  design  so  to  propagate  re¬ 
ligion  . 167 

2.  God’s  covenant  with  Abraham  stood  upon  this  footing,  and  is 

through  Jesus  Christ  extended  to  the  Gentiles  ....  168 

3.  The  universal  spread  of  the  gospel  and  the  universal  reign  of 

Christian  truth  never  can  be  compassed  by  the  process  of 
adult  conversions,  but  must  finally  be  reached,  if  reached  at 
all,  by  the  populating  forces  of  a  family  grace  in  the  church  169 

4.  It  is  a  physiological  fact  that  qualities  of  education,  habit,  feel¬ 


ing,  and  character,  have  a  tendency  always  to  grow  in,  by 
long  continuance,  and  become  thoroughly  inbred  in  the 
stock . 171 

5.  The  populating  power  of  any  race  or  stock  is  increased  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  degree  of  personal  and  religious  character  to 
which  it  has  attained . 175 


XIV 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

There  are  causes  and  conditions  of  increase  operative  in  the 
Christian  church  which  exist  nowhere  else,  and  by  which  it 
promises  to  possess  the  whole  earth . 178 

6.  The  vindication  of  God  with  respect  to  sin,  suffering,  punish¬ 
ment,  and  all  evil  pertaining  to  the  race,  probably  depends, 
to  a  great  degree,  on  this  truth . 181 

III.  The  failure  of  individualism. 


1.  It  misconceives  the  family,  the  church,  and  God  himself  .  .  183 

2.  It  results  in  a  piety  begun  too  late  in  life,  which  must  maintain 

a  perpetual  and  unequal  war  with  previous  habit  .  .  .  185 

3.  It  begets  a  notion  of  religion  that  is  mechanical . 186 

4.  It  makes  piety  inconstant,  and  exaggerates  the  place  of  revi¬ 

vals  of  religion . 186 

5.  It  constitutes  the  greatest  impediment  to  a  true  missionary 

spirit . 187 

6.  In  its  effort  always  to  operate  by  an  immediate  influence  of  the 

Holy  Spirit,  it  makes  his  mediate  influence  a  matter  of 
little  account . 187 


PART  II — THE  MODE 

I.  WHEN  AND  WHERE  THE  NURTURE  BEGINS 

The  question:  When  and  where,  at  what  point,  and  how  early,  does 
the  office  of  a  genuine  nurture  begin? 

I.  Ante-natal  nurture . 194 

The  work  of  the  Spirit  in  the  body  as  in  the  soul  .  .  .  195 

The  contrasted  heritages  of  a  godly  and  a  vicious  parentage  196 
The  true  beginning  of  a  godly  nurture  is  in  a  godly  heritage  197 

II.  Nurture  in  the  age  of  impressions . 198 

The  distinction  between  the  age  of  impressions  and  the 
age  of  tuitional  influences . 198 

The  error  of  the  common  assumption  that  there  is  nothing 
to  be  done  for  the  religious^  character  in  the  age  of  im¬ 
pressions  .  . 199 


■/ 

CONTENTS  XV 

PAGE 

Language  itself  has  no  meaning  till  impressions  are  first 
begotten  in  the  life  of  experience,  to  give  it  a  meaning  .  203 

The  impressionability  and  imitativeness  of  a  little  child  .  204 

After  this  first  age  is  gone  by,  there  is  no  such  thing  any 
more  as  a  possibility  of  absolute  control . 206 

The  development  of  the  will  under  authority  ....  207 

In  most  cases,  the  seed  of  all  future  character  is  implanted 
in  this  period .  209 

The  conclusion:  More,  as  a  general  fact,  is  done,  or  lost  by  neglect 
of  doing,  on  a  child’s  immortality,  in  the  first  three  years 
of  his  life,  than  in  all  his  years  of  discipline  afterwards  .  .  211 

Practical  counsels: 

The  damage  that  may  be  done  by  placing  children  in  the 
charge  of  nurses  and  attendants  during  these  years  .  .  212 

This  nurture  calls  for  the  greatest  personal  holiness  in  the 
parents,  and  adds  just  those  conditions  which  will  make 
true  holiness  most  natural  and  attractive  ....  213 

'  '•v 

II.  PARENTAL  QUALIFICATIONS 

The  incompetence  of  mere  natural  affection  as  an  equipment 
for  the  parental  office,  and  the  necessity  of  personal  and 
religious  qualifications  for  success  in  family  training  and 
government . 217 

Disqualifications  that,  even  in  Christian  parents,  hinder  the  re¬ 
ligious  nurture  of  their  children: 

1.  Lack  of  peace  with  God’s  Providence . 220 

2.  A  bad  or  false  morality  at  some  point  not  suspected  .  .  .  222 

(а)  A  life  of  policy  . . 222 

(б)  An  atmosphere  of  pretense . 222 

3.  Vices  that  belong  to  the  Christian  life  itself . 224 

(a)  Sanctimony . 224 

( b )  Bigotry . 225 

(c)  Fanaticism . 226 

( d )  Censorious  habit  . . 226 


XVI 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

(e)  Disowning  authority . 227 

(/)  Anxiousness . 227 

God’s  grace  is  even  the  more  certainly  with  the  one  parent,  if 

duly  qualified,  when  the  other  is  not . 229 

Parental  qualifications  are  to  be  obtained  only  by  the  method  of 
faith :  by  being  more  perfectly  and  wholly  trusted  to  God, 
more  singly,  simply  Christian . 230 

r  W'*?. 

III.  PHYSICAL  NURTURE  TO  BE  A  MEANS  OF  GRACE 

I.  The  relation  of  soul  and  body  as  a  fact  of  adult  experience  .  .  232 

II.  Evil  results  of  the  wrong  feeding  of  children. 

1.  The  creation  of  artificial  appetite,  and  the  beginning  of  intem¬ 

perance  . 236 

2.  Subjection  to  the  body,  and  sensuality . 237 

III.  Methods  of  judicious  and  more  properly  Christian  feeding. 

1.  The  pleasures  of  taste  will  not  be  used  as  a  reward  for  fretful¬ 

ness  and  ill-nature . 239 

2.  Simplicity  is  a  condition  of  all  right  feeding . 240 

3.  Regulation  of  the  times  of  feeding . 241 

4.  Too  much  will  not  be  made  of  the  pleasures  of  the  table  .  .  242 

5.  Children  should  be  trained  to  good  manners  in  their  eating  .  243 

6.  The  observance  of  a  Christian  blessing . 244 

7.  Association  of  charity  with  the  blessings  of  the  table  .  .  .  245 

IV.  The  external  bodily  habit. 

1.  Personal  neatness  and  its  close  relation  to  the  spiritual  habit 

of  the  soul  in  religion . 247 

2.  The  dress  of  a  Christian  child . 248 

IV.  THE  TREATMENT  THAT  DISCOURAGES  PIETY 

Ways  in  which  parents  may  discourage  their  children  in  piety: 

1.  By  ill-temper,  pettishness  and  passion . 253 

2.  By  too  much  of  prohibition . 254 


CONTENTS 


XVII 


3.  By  hard,  unfeeling  government  or  over-bearing  absolutism  . 

4.  By  an  over-exacting  manner  or  an  extreme  difficulty  of  being 

pleased . 

5.  By  holding  displeasure  too  long  and  yielding  it  with  too  great 

difficulty . 

6.  By  hasty  and  false  accusations  ......... 

7.  By  anxiety  and  over-concern . 

8.  By  the  application  of  tests  of  character  inappropriate  to  their 

age . 

9.  By  denying  to  them  a  recognition  of  their  membership  in  the 

church  and  an  admission  to  the  Lord’s  table  .... 

V.  FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 

I.  What  is  the  true  conception  of  family  government  ? 

1.  It  is  to  be  government,  using  authority  and  maintaining  laws 

and  rules  over  the  moral  nature  of  the  child . 

2.  It  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  vicegerent  authority,  set  up  by  God 

and  ruling  in  his  place . 

3.  It  is  to  bear  rule  for  the  same  ends  that  God  himself  pursues, 

in  the  religious  order  of  the  world . 

4.  It  is  to  secure,  and  may  secure,  a  style  of  obedience  in  the  child 

that  amounts  to  a  real  piety . 

II.  By  what  methods  will  it  best  fulfill  its  gracious  purposes  f 

1.  The  authority  of  the  parents  depends  upon  the  reality  of  their 

own  Christian  life  and  character,  and  upon  their  due  rela¬ 
tion  the  one  to  the  other  .  . . 

2.  The  question  of  rule  and  obedience  may  be  well-nigh  settled 

before  the  time  of  verbal  commandment  arrives,  by  the 
beginning  of  government  in  an  infant  nurture  that  ex¬ 
presses  law  and  order  and  quiet . 

3.  The  authority  of  verbal  command . 

4.  Beginning  in  sheer  authority,  which  rests  upon  its  own  right, 

the  parental  government  will  seek  gradually  to  develop 
that  self-control  within  the  child  which  finally  brings  about 
his  emancipation . 

5.  The  motives,  higher  and  lower,  which  may  be  addressed  . 

6.  The  place  of  punishment  in  family  government . 


PAGE 

255 

256 

257 

259 

260 

262 

264 

270 

271 

272 

273 

275 

277 

278 


279 

282 

284 


XV111 


CONTENTS 


III.  Practical  cautions.  page 

1.  Great  care  is  needed  in  the  processes  of  detection,  to  avoid  lax¬ 

ity  on  the  one  hand  and  espionage  on  the  other  ....  287 

2.  In  holding  a  magisterial  relation,  the  parent  must  take  care 

not  to  lose  out  the  parental,  or  to  fail  to  temper  law  with 
love . 288 

VI.  PLAYS  AND  PASTIMES,  HOLIDAYS  AND  SUNDAYS 

I.  The  Christian  attitude  toward  the  play  of  children. 

Religion  loves  too  much  the  plays  and  pleasures  of  childhood, 

to  limit  or  suppress  them  by  any  kind  of  needless  austerity  291 

1.  The  instinct  of  play  in  children  is  itself  a  divine  appointment 

of  play . 291 

2.  Play  is  the  symbol  and  interpreter  of  Christian  liberty  .  .  .  291 

3.  One  of  the  first  duties  of  a  genuinely  Christian  parent  is  to  show 

a  generous  sympathy  with  the  plays  of  his  children  .  .  292 

4.  The  observance  of  birthdays  and  other  days  and  festivals,  pub¬ 


lic  and  religious . 293 

5.  The  children’s  evenings  at  home . 295 


6.  Care  must  be  exercised  that  the  religious  life  itself  be  never  set 

in  an  attitude  of  repugnance  to  the  plays  of  childhood  .  .  296 

II.  The  necessary  restriction  of  play. 

Home,  school  and  religion  place  restrictions  upon  the  child’s 
play,  not  as  hostile  to  it,  but  as  terms  that  are  really  nec¬ 
essary  for  his  training  into  the  organic  relations  under  which 
he  is  born,  best  for  his  character,  and  even  best  for  the  en¬ 
joyments  of  his  play  itself . 298 

III.  How  to  use  Sunday  so  as  best  to  honor  the  day  and  best  secure 

the  ends  of  Christian  nurture. 

1.  The  tendency  is  to  one  or  the  other  of  two  opposite  extremes: 

that  of  undue  severity  or  that  of  unchristian  looseness  .  301 

(а)  Sometimes  because  of  parental  self-indulgence  or  indo¬ 

lence  . 302 

(б)  Sometimes  because  of  a  wrong  conception  of  the  day  .  303 

(1)  It  is  not  a  Jewish  day,  but  a  day  of  humanity  .  .  304 

(2)  It  is  not  a  mere  holiday,  without  restriction  or 

spiritual  training . 306 


CONTENTS 


XIX 


PAGE 

2.  The  true  principle  of  Sunday  observance  is:  that  the  child  is  to 
feel  the  day  as  a  restriction,  and  is  to  have  so  much  done  to 
excite  interest,  and  mitigate  the  severities  of  restriction, 
that  he  will  also  feel  the  true  benignity  of  God  in  the  day, 
and  learn  to  have  it  as  one  of  his  enjoyments  ....  309 


(а)  Sunday  play . 309 

(б)  Sunday  conversation . 310 


VII.  THE  CHRISTIAN  TEACHING  OF  CHILDREN 


Paul’s  exhortation  to  Timothy . 315 

I.  General  considerations  involved  in  this  exhortation. 

1.  The  great  importance  of  the  Christian  teaching  of  children, 

when  rightly  dispensed . 316 

2.  This  teaching  should  be  Scriptural . 316 

3.  The  only  genuine  teaching  is  that  which  interprets  the  truth 

to  the  child’s  feeling  by  living  example,  and  makes  him  . 
love  the  truth  afterwards  for  the  teacher’s  sake  .  .  .  f  318 j 

II.  Things  not  to  be  taught  to  children: 

1.  That  they  were  regenerated  in  their  baptism . 320 


2.  That  they  are  unregenerated  and  to  be  converted  as  are  the 

heathen . 320 

3.  That  they  need  to  be  regenerated  because  of  their  faults  or  their 

love  of  play . 321 

4.  That  they  are  too  young  to  be  good  or  to  be  really  Christian  .  321 


5.  That  they  can  never  pray,  or  do  anything  acceptable  to  God, 

till  after  they  are  converted  or  regenerated . 322 

6.  That  they  must,  by  the  doing  of  good  works,  build  character 

for  themselves.  Salvation  by  faith  is  the  only  kind  of 
religion  that  a  child  can  support . 323 

III.  The  method  of  the  Christian  teaching  of  children. 

1.  Many  things  which  are  not  to  be  taught  formally  or  theolog¬ 
ically,  for  the  reason  that  they  can  not  be  sufficiently  ap¬ 
prehended,  are  to  be  taught  implicitly,  in  a  kind  of  child’s 
version . . . f . 


XX 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

2.  The  child’s  times  of  interest  should  be  watched  for  and  met, 
and  religion  not  thrust  upon  him  in  a  manner  to  make  it 


unwelcome . 325 

3.  The  child’s  questions  should  be  carefully  dealt  with  and  an¬ 
swered  . 325 


4.  The  parent’s  teaching  should  center  about  Jesus  Christ,  as 

himself  the  truth  incarnate,  and  the  parent  should  so  live 
as  to  make  his  own  life  the  interpreter  of  that  of  Jesus  .  .  326 

5.  It  should  be  the  constant  endeavor  with  children  to  make  the 

subject  of  religion  an  open  subject  and  keep  it  so  .  .  .  327 

IV.  The  aim  of  the  Christian  teaching  of  children. 

It  is  not  their  conversion,  but  their  Christian  nurture,  pre¬ 
suming  on  a  grace  already  and  always  given  ....  328 

VIII.  FAMILY  PRAYERS 


Hosea’s  figure  of  prevailing  prayer . 332 

The  distinction  between  family  worship  as  observance  and  as 
an  open  state  of  prayer  and  communion  with  God  in  the 
house . 333 

I.  The  manner  in  which  prayers  of  all  kinds  get  their  answer  from 

God . 335 


There  are  two  conditions: 

1.  That  the  matter  requested  should  agree  with  the  ends  of  good 

to  which  God’s  plans  are  directed. 

2.  That  the  prayer  should  agree  with  as  many  other  prayers  and 

as  many  other  circles  of  causes  as  possible,  for  God  is 
working  always  toward  the  largest  harmony. 

II.  The  conditions  of  family  prayer. 

The  great  infirmity  of  family  prayer  is  that  it  stands  alone  in 

the  house  and  has  nothing  put  in  agreement  with  it  .  .  340 

1.  It  should  be  real  prayer,  not  mere  observance  or  a  means  of 

discipline . 341 

2.  Both  parents  should  concur  in  the  prayer,  in  spirit  and  life  as 

in  word . 342 

3.  The  children  themselves  should  be  inducted  into  ways  and 

habits  of  prayer  .  342 


CONTENTS 


XXI 


PAGE 

4.  All  the  practical  ends,  tastes,  plans,  aspirations  and  works  of 
the  house  should  come  into  the  same  circle  of  concert,  and 
join  their  petition  to  reinforce  the  prayers . 34 y 

The  great  lesson  of  family  religion  is  that  religion,  being  the 
supreme  end  and  law  of  life,  is  to  have  everything  put  in 


the  largest  possible  harmony  with  it . 346 

III.  The  dignity  and  power  of  a  genuine  family  religion ,  thus  main¬ 
tained  . .  347 


> 


HORACE  BUSHNELL 


BY  WILLISTON  WALKER 

Horace  Bushnell,  whose  best-known  treatise  is  here 
republished,  was  born  on  April  14,  1802,  in  the  village  of 
Bantam,  in  the  township  of  Litchfield,  Connecticut,  the 
eldest  child  of  Ensign  and  Dotha  (Bishop)  Bushnell.  His 
father  was  a  farmer  and,  in  a  small  way,  a  manufacturer. 
In  religious  training  the  father  was  a  Methodist,  the  mother 
an  Episcopalian;  and  both  parents  were  members  of 
the  Congregational  church  of  New  Preston,  Connecticut, 
whither  the  family  home  was  removed  when  Horace  was 
three  years  old.  In  New  Preston  he  grew  to  young  man¬ 
hood,  and  there  made  profession  of  his  Christian  faith  in 
1821. 

Bushnell  entered  Yale  College  in  1823,  graduating  in 
1827.  The  most  important  influence  of  his  college  years, 
in  view  of  his  later  development,  was  a  painstaking  acquaint¬ 
ance  with  the  “Aids  to  Reflection”  published  by  the  Eng¬ 
lish  poet-philosopher  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge,  in  1825. 
New  England,  like  the  Anglo-Saxon  world  generally,  had 
looked  upon  religious  truth  as  capable  of  intellectual  demon¬ 
stration  with  all  the  logical  sharpness  of  a  problem  in 
geometry.  Its  appeal  was  to  the  rational  understanding, 
and  with  the  assent  of  the  intellect  it  stood  or  fell.  Cole¬ 
ridge  broke  with  this  whole  conception.  To  him  Chris¬ 
tianity  is  primarily  graspable  by  intuition.  Its  appeal  is 

not  so  much  to  the  intellect  as  to  the  ethical  and  spiritual 

xxiii 


XXIV 


HORACE  BUSHNELL 


feeling.  Bushnell  was  distressed  with  intellectual  doubts. 
He  questioned  whether  religious  truth  could  ever  be  demon¬ 
strated  to  the  complete  logical  satisfaction  of  the  under¬ 
standing.  Those  doubts  acquaintance  with  the  suggestive 
work  of  Coleridge  did  not  immediately  remove;  but  the 
thoughts  then  instilled  by  the  “Aids  to  Reflection”  became 
germinal  in  his  mind,  and  led  him  ultimately  not  merely  to 
personal  religious  certainty,  but  to  the  conviction  that  the 
whole  system  of  dependence  on  intellectual  demonstration 
characteristic  of  the  explanation  of  religion  in  that  day 
was  mistaken.  Religion  appeals,  he  became  convinced, 
primarily  to  the  heart  and  to  the  feeling  for  its  compelling 
demonstration. 

It  was  still  under  the  burden  of  intellectual  doubts,  how¬ 
ever,  that  Bushnell  graduated.  He  tried  teaching  in  Nor¬ 
wich,  Connecticut,  and  then  journalism  in  New  York  City, 
only  to  be  convinced  that  neither  was  his  vocation.  Early 
in  1829  he  returned  to  Yale  to  begin  the  study  of  law,  and 
soon  after  added  to  it  the  duties  of  a  tutorship  in  the  col¬ 
lege.  It  was  while  engaged  in  these  twofold  occupations 
that  he  felt  the  impress  of  a  great  revival  which  profoundly 
moved  Yale  in  1831.  Though  feeling,  at  first,  little  sym¬ 
pathy  with  its  enthusiasm,  he  was  conscious  of  a  profound 
obligation  to  the  students  committed  to  his  charge.  He 
must  “take  the  principle  of  right”  as  his  guide.  The  mighty 
force  of  emotion  was  unloosed  within  him.  His  intellectual 
doubts  no  longer  distressed  him.  He  entered  into  the  joy 
and  confidence  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

Determined  thus  on  a  life  of  Christian  service,  Bushnell 
enrolled  in  the  Yale  Divinity  School,  where  he  studied  from 
1831  to  1833.  That  school  was  then  in  the  height  of  its 
fame  under  the  forceful  leadership  of  Professor  Nathaniel 


HORACE  BUSHNELL 


XXV 


W.  Taylor,  a  champion  of  that  conception  of  the  intellec¬ 
tual  demonstrability  of  Christian  theology  which  Bushnell  so 
profoundly  distrusted.  He  received  intellectual  stimulus 
from  his  studies,  but  had  little  sympathy  with  the  main 
tenets  of  the  “New  Haven  theology/’  nor  did  his  teachers 
have  much  understanding  of  him.  He  came  to  feel  that 
language  itself  could  at  best  but  imperfectly  symbolize  spir¬ 
itual  realities.  Exact  logical  explication  in  this  realm  is 
impossible.  They  must  be  felt  rather  than  defined. 

From  his  studies  Bushnell  was  called,  in  1833,  to  his  only 
pastorate,  that  of  the  North  Congregational  Church  in  Hart¬ 
ford,  Connecticut,  where  he  soon  developed  conspicuous 
abilities  as  a  preacher.  No  more  effective  or  permanently 
valued  sermons  than  his  were  heard  in  the  Connecticut  of 
his  day.  His  interest  in  civic  affairs  was  no  less  evident. 
To  him  the  inauguration  of  the  noble  park  system  of  Hart¬ 
ford  was  due,  and  many  another  civic  betterment  found  in 
him  an  efficient  leader.  In  religious  and  public  interests 
alike  he  grew  to  be  Hartford’s  first  citizen.  This  command¬ 
ing  position  was  the  more  remarkable  because  there  devel¬ 
oped,  not  long  after  the  beginning  of  his  pastorate,  that 
bronchial  and  pulmonary  malady  which  rendered  most  of 
his  life  a  battle  with  disease  and  made  his  later  years,  as 
he  described  them,  a  period  of  “broken  industry.” 

Bushnell  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from 
Wesleyan  College  in  1842.  In  1846  he  spent  nearly  a  year 
in  Europe  in  search  of  health.  The  year  1847  saw  his  first 
considerable  constructive  theological  treatise — the  “Dis¬ 
courses  on  Christian  Nurture,”  which  were  to  be  rewritten 
and  much  enlarged  in  1861,  and  constitute  the  work  repub¬ 
lished  herewith.  Of  the  circumstances  of  its  publication 
and  the  discussion  thereby  aroused  there  will  be  occasion 


XXVI 


HORACE  BUSHNELL 


later  to  speak.  Doctor  Bushnell’s  growing  fame  led,  in 

1848,  to  invitations  to  deliver  addresses  before  the  Harvard 
Divinity  School  and  Andover  Theological  Seminary,  and 
to  preach  the  Condo  ad  Clerum  to  the  General  Association 
of  Connecticut.  He  regarded  these  as  divine  calls  to  witness 
to  the  truth  that  was  in  him.  He  published  the  resultant 
discourses,  prefacing  them  by  a  “Dissertation  on  Language” 
expressive  of  its  limitations  in  defining  religious  truth.  The 
whole  bore  the  title  “God  in  Christ”  and  was  issued  in 

1849.  With  its  publication  Doctor  Bushnell’s  great  period 
of  controversy  began. 

In  his  “  God  in  Christ  ”  Doctor  Bushnell  claimed  the  In¬ 
carnation  and  the  Trinity  as  truths  of  Christian  experience. 
Their  metaphysical  interpretation  is  admittedly  difficult. 
So,  too,  regarding  the  Atonement.  Any  interpretation  of 
the  great  sacrifice  that  seeks  to  define  its  Godward  influ¬ 
ence  is  beyond  human  power.  Its  manward  aspects,  its 
revelation  of  the  sacrificing  love  of  God  awakening  love 
in  men,  are  evident  and  sufficient.  These  views,  however 
familiar  they  have  now  become,  constituted  a  radical  de¬ 
parture  from  then  current  New  England  theology.  Though 
the  Hartford  Central  Association,  of  which  Doctor  Bushnell 
was  a  member,  declined  to  regard  him  as  a  heretic,  the  Fair- 
field  West  Association  of  Connecticut  proceeded  against 
him,  and  the  case  was  considered  by  successive  meetings 
of  the  General  Association  of  Connecticut  from  1849  to 
1854.  Fortunately,  though  few  of  the  ministry  of  Con¬ 
necticut  then  sympathized  with  Doctor  Bushnell,  the  spirit 
of  fair  play  and  brotherly  toleration  was  sufficient  to  pre¬ 
vent  any  of  these  accusations  resulting  in  his  condemnation. 

Though  borne  with  calm  fortitude,  and  accompanied  by 
some  of  his  most  serene-minded  labor  in  the  pulpit  and  in 


HORACE  BUSHNELL 


XXV11 


public  address,  this  period  of  accusation  broke  down  Doc¬ 
tor  Bushnelks  already  enfeebled  health.  Most  of  the  year 
1856  was  spent  in  California,  where  he  was  instrumental 
in  laying  the  foundations  of  what  was  to  become  its  uni¬ 
versity.  In  1859  he  was  compelled  to  relinquish  pastoral 
responsibilities  altogether.  Hartford  remained  his  home, 
however,  with  the  ever-growing  affection  and  reverence  of 
the  community  and  of  the  State,  till  his  death  on  February 
17,  1876. 

During  these  later  years  Doctor  BushneH’s  pen  was  busy 
with  volumes  that  cost  him  even  greater  labor,  though 
arousing  less  controversy,  than  those  that  went  before.  He 
published  “Sermons  for  the  New  Life”  in  1858,  “The 
Moral  Uses  of  Dark  Things”  in  1868,  and  other  collections 
of  essays  and  discourses.  The  most  considerable  fruitage 
of  this  period  was,  however,  three  elaborate  doctrinal  dis¬ 
cussions.  The  first  of  these,  published  in  1858,  was  entitled 
“Nature  and  the  Supernatural.”  In  this  painstaking  study 
Doctor  Bushnell  strove  to  show  that  nature  and  the  super¬ 
natural  are  not  antagonistic  and  exclusive  realms.  Each 
has  its  own  laws,  but  man  lives  in  both,  and  both  constitute 
the  one  harmonious  system  of  God.  As  he  drew  toward 
the  close  of  his  useful  life  Doctor  Bushnell  reverted  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  Atonement  which  he  had  treated  in  his  “God 
in  Christ.”  The  results  of  his  further  studies  were  “The 
Vicarious  Sacrifice  Grounded  in  Principles  of  Universal 
Obligation,”  issued  in  1866,  and  “Forgiveness  and  Law 
Grounded  in  Principles  Interpreted  by  Human  Analo¬ 
gies,”  put  forth  in  1874.  To  Doctor  Bushnell’s  thinking, 
all  true  love  involves  vicarious  sacrifice,  a  taking  on  itself 
of  the  sins  and  evils  of  the  objects  of  its  affection.  In  the 
Atonement  this  universal  principle  has  its  highest  illustra- 


XXV111 


HORACE  BUSHNELL 


tion.  No  angry  Deity  is  paid  the  equivalent  of  man’s  sin, 
nor  is  moral  government  justified  to  a  waiting  universe. 
God,  through  loving  sympathy,  takes  on  himself  man’s 
miseries,  and  by  that  very  act  flows  forth  the  more  abun¬ 
dantly  in  good-will  toward  his  creatures. 

Doctor  Bushnell  was  no  party  leader.  He  founded  no 
school  that  calls  itself  by  his  name.  His  was,  however,  a 
mighty  force  for  good  in  an  age  of  theological  transition. 
He  sought  to  reach  behind  the  metaphysical  definitions  of 
religious  truth,  which  he  held  to  be  inadequate,  and  which 
were  becoming  antiquated,  to  the  deeper  spiritual  realities 
which  they  attempted  to  set  forth,  which  he  believed  were 
graspable  by  the  religious  feeling  rather  than  shut  up  to 
terms  of  intellectual  definition.  He  had  the  spirit  of  a  poet, 
a  mystic,  and  a  Christian  prophet.  In  the  great  transition 
from  the  older  to  the  newer  conception  of  Christian  truth 
which  the  last  half-century  has  witnessed,  his  influence  has 
been  more  helpful  than  that  of  any  other  son  of  New  Eng¬ 
land  and  has  been  felt  in  ever-widening  circles. 

The  immediate  occasion  and  significance  of  the  treatise 
herewith  republished — that  on  “ Christian  Nurture” — de¬ 
mand  a  final  word  of  explanation.  Original  New  England 
Congregationalism,  like  the  thought  of  the  church  universal, 
had  abundantly  emphasized  the  significance  of  Christian 
childhood.  The  founders  of  New  England  had  made  much 
of  the  covenant  relation  existing  between  God  and  all  mem¬ 
bers  of  a  Christian  household.  The  first  enthusiasm  of 
the  founders  had  been  followed,  however,  by  a  period  of 
relative  spiritual  lethargy.  The  eighteenth  century,  as  a 
whole,  was  an  epoch  in  New  England  of  religious  torpor. 
That  decadence  was  broken  by  the  “ Great  Awakening”  of 
1740-42,  when  New  England,  aroused  by  George  Whitefield, 


HORACE  BUSHNELL 


XXIX 


Jonathan  Edwards,  and  others,  was  profoundly  stirred. 
The  political  and  military  struggles  which  had  for  their  chief 
results  the  conquest  of  Canada,  the  achievement  of  Ameri¬ 
can  independence,  and  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  turned  men’s  thoughts  from  religion  for 
the  time;  but  the  revival  movement  manifested  itself  again 
with  great  intensity,  not  only  in  New  England  but  through¬ 
out  the  United  States,  from  1792  onward,  and  may  be  said 
not  to  have  spent  its  force  till  after  1858.  In  the  latter  part 
of  this  period  Bushnell’s  work  was  cast. 

That  great  revival  impulse  was  an  immense  benefit  to  the 
religious  life  of  America.  It  was  one-sided,  nevertheless. 
In  the  emphasis  not  merely  of  the  school  of  Jonathan  Ed¬ 
wards  but  of  American  preaching  generally,  conscious  con¬ 
version,  after  intense  struggle,  was  looked  upon  as  the  normal 
method  of  entrance  into  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Too  often 
the  child,  even  of  Christian  parentage,  was  viewed  as  an 
alien  from  the  divine  promises — a  “child  of  wrath”  until  in 
years  of  approaching  or  actual  maturity  the  Divine  Spirit 
should  work  the  transformation  which  should  transmute 
him  into  a  child  of  God.  The  blessings  of  membership  in  a 
Christian  household,  of  parental  covenant  relations  to  God, 
were  minimized.  The  revival  was  exalted  as  the  surest  road 
to  Christian  discipleship.  Undoubtedly,  this  emphasis  pro¬ 
duced  strong  men  and  women,  able  to  give  a  reason  for  the 
faith  that  was  in  them,  but  at  the  cost  of  the  loss  to  the 
church  of  many  whose  emotional  natures  were  not  so  acute 
or  who  could  not  honestly  own  such  conscious  transforma¬ 
tion. 

Doctor  Bushnell,  in  his  “  Christian  Nurture,”  strove  to  cor¬ 
rect  this  one-sidedness  and  to  vindicate  for  Christian  child¬ 
hood  its  normal  place  in  the  Kingdom  of  God.  In  so  doing 


XXX 


HORACE  BUSHNELL 


he  adopted  positions  consonant  with  the  great  historic  ex¬ 
perience  of  the  church,  however  little  in  agreement  with 
the  local  American  outlook  of  his  time.  That  the  work  was 
met  with  denunciation  was  to  be  expected  under  the  cir¬ 
cumstances;  but  no  treatise  of  Doctor  Bushnell’s  has  so 
commended  itself  to  the  American  Christian  public  or  has 
been  more  influential  in  modifying  American  religious 
thought.  As  such  it  well  deserves  its  present  republica¬ 
tion. 

This  edition  is  published  in  connection  with  the  estab¬ 
lishment  in  the  Yale  School  of  Religion  of  the  Horace  Bush- 
nell  Professorship  of  Christian  Nurture.  The  text  has  been 
revised  to  the  extent  only  of  the  excision  of  a  few  brief  pas¬ 
sages  of  a  controversial  sort.  Their  omission  in  no  way 
affects  the  argument.  They  have  been  stricken  out  because 
lines  of  division  are  no  longer  drawn  as  they  once  were,  nor 
do  those  who  might  dissent  from  Doctor  Bushnell’s  argu¬ 
ment  bear  the  same  party  names.  The  analytical  table  of 
contents  is  new. 

Those  who  desire  a  larger  acquaintance  with  Doctor  Bush- 
nell  and  his  work  will  find  sufficient  aid  in  the  memorial  vol¬ 
ume  by  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Mary  Bushnell  Cheney,  “Life 
and  Letters  of  Horace  Bushnell”  (New  York,  1880;  2d  ed., 
1903);  in  Reverend  Doctor  Theodore  T.  Munger’s  “Horace 
Bushnell,  Preacher  and  Theologian”  (Boston,  1899);  or  in 
the  memorial  papers  printed  in  the  “Minutes  of  the  General 
Association  of  Connecticut — Bushnell  Centenary”  (Hart¬ 
ford,  1902). 

Yale  University,  October,  1916. 


PART  I— THE  DOCTRINE 


I 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 

“Bring  them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord.” — 
Ephesians  vi.  4. 

There  is  then  some  kind  of  nurture  which  is  of  the  Lord, 
deriving  a  quality  and  a  power  from  Him,  and  communi¬ 
cating  the  same.  Being  instituted  by  Him,  it  will  of  neces¬ 
sity  have  a  method  and  a  character  peculiar  to  itself,  or 
rather  to  Him.  It  will  be  the  Lord’s  way  of  education, 
having  aims  appropriate  to  Him,  and,  if  realized  in  its  full 
intent,  terminating  in  results  impossible  to  be  reached  by 
any  merely  human  method. 

What  then  is  the  true  idea  of  Christian  or  divine  nur¬ 
ture,  as  distinguished  from  that  which  is  not  Christian? 
What  is  its  aim?  What  its  method  of  working?  What 
its  powers  and  instruments?  What  its  contemplated  re¬ 
sults?  Few  questions  have  greater  moment;  and  it  is 
one  of  the  pleasant  signs  of  the  times,  that  the  subject 
involved  is  beginning  to  attract  new  interest  and  excite  a 
spirit  of  inquiry  which  heretofore  has  not  prevailed  in  our 
churches. 

In  ordinary  cases,  the  better  and  more  instructive  way 
of  handling  this  subject  would  be  to  go  directly  into  the 
practical  methods  of  parental  discipline  and  show  by  what 
modes  of  government  and  instruction  we  may  hope  to  realize 
the  best  results.  But  unhappily  the  public  mind  is  preoc- 

3 


4 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


cupied  extensively  by  a  view  of  the  whole  subject,  which  I 
must  regard  as  a  theoretical  mistake,  and  one  which  will 
involve,  as  long  as  it  continues,  practical  results  system¬ 
atically  injurious.  This  mistaken  view  it  is  necessary,  if 
possible,  to  remove.  And  accordingly  what  I  have  to  say 
will  take  the  form  of  an  argument  on  the  question  thus  put 
in  issue,  though  I  design  to  gather  round  the  subject,  as  I 
proceed,  as  much  of  practical  instruction  as  the  mode  of  the 
argument  will  suffer.  Assuming  then  the  question  above 
stated,  What  is  the  true  idea  of  Christian  education? — I 
answer  in  the  following  proposition,  which  it  will  be  the 
aim  of  my  argument  to  establish,  viz.: 

That  the  child  is  to  grow  up  a  Christian,  and  never  know 
himself  as  being  otherwise. 

In  other  words,  the  aim,  effort,  and  expectation  should 
be,  not,  as  is  commonly  assumed,  that  the  child  is  to  grow 
up  in  sin,  to  be  converted  after  he  comes  to  a  mature  age; 
but  that  he  is  to  open  on  the  world  as  one  that  is  spiritually 
renewed,  not  remembering  the  time  when  he  went  through 
a  technical  experience,  but  seeming  rather  to  have  loved 
what  is  good  from  his  earliest  years.  I  do  not  affirm  that 
every  child  may,  in  fact  and  without  exception,  be  so  trained 
that  he  certainly  will  grow  up  a  Christian.  The  qualifica¬ 
tions  it  may  be  necessary  to  add  will  be  given  in  another 
place,  where  they  can  be  stated  more  intelligibly. 

This  doctrine  is  not  a  novelty,  now  rashly  and  for  the 
first  time  propounded,  as  some  of  you  may  be  tempted 
to  suppose.  I  shall  show  you,  before  I  have  done  with 
the  argument,  that  it  is  as  old  as  the  Christian  church, 
and  prevails  extensively  at  the  present  day  in  other  parts 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


5 


of  the  world.  Neither  let  your  own  experience  raise  a 
prejudice  against  it.  If  you  have  endeavored  to  realize 
the  very  truth  I  here  affirm,  but  find  that  your  children 
do  not  exhibit  the  character  you  have  looked  for;  if  they 
seem  to  be  intractable  to  religious  influences,  and  sometimes 
to  display  an  apparent  aversion  to  the  very  subject  of 
religion  itself,  you  are  not  of  course  to  conclude  that  the 
doctrine  I  here  maintain  is  untrue  or  impracticable.  You 
may  be  unreasonable  in  your  expectations  of  your  chil¬ 
dren. 

Possibly,  there  may  be  seeds  of  holy  principle  in  them, 
which  you  do  not  discover.  A  child  acts  out  his  present 
feelings,  the  feelings  of  the  moment,  without  qualification 
or  disguise.  And  how,  many  times,  would  all  you  appear, 
if  you  were  to  do  the  same?  Will  you  expect  of  them  to 
be  better,  and  more  constant  and  consistent,  than  your¬ 
selves;  or  will  you  rather  expect  them  to  be  children,  human 
children  still,  living  a  mixed  life,  trying  out  the  good  and 
evil  of  the  world,  and  preparing,  as  older  Christians  do, 
when  they  have  taken  a  lesson  of  sorrow  and  emptiness,  to 
turn  again  to  the  true  good? 

Perhaps  they  will  go  through  a  rough  mental  strug¬ 
gle,  at  some  future  day,  and  seem,  to  others  and  to  them¬ 
selves,  there  to  have  entered  on  a  Christian  life.  And  yet 
it  may  be  true  that  there  was  still  some  root  of  right  prin¬ 
ciple  established  in  their  childhood,  which  is  here  only 
quickened  and  developed,  as  when  Christians  of  a  mature 
age  are  revived  in  their  piety,  after  a  period  of  spiritual 
lethargy;  for  it  is  conceivable  that  regenerate  character 
may  exist,  long  before  it  is  fully  and  formally  developed. 

But  suppose  there  is  really  no  trace  or  seed  of  holy  prin¬ 
ciple  in  your  children,  has  there  been  no  fault  of  piety  and 


6 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


constancy  in  your  church  ?  no  want  of  Christian  sensibility 
and  love  to  God?  no  carnal  spirit  visible  to  them  and  to 
all,  and  imparting  its  noxious  and  poisonous  quality  to  the 
Christian  atmosphere  in  which  they  have  had  their  nur¬ 
ture?  For  it  is  not  for  you  alone  to  realize  all  that  is  in¬ 
cluded  in  the  idea  of  Christian  education.  -  It  belongs  to 
the  church  of  God,  according  to  the  degree  of  its  social 
power  over  you  and  in  you  and  around  your  children,  to 
bear  a  part  of  the  responsibility  with  you. 

Then,  again,  have  you  nothing  to  blame  in  yourselves? 
no  lack  of  faithfulness?  no  indiscretion  of  manner  or  of 
temper  ?  no  mistake  of  duty,  which,  with  a  better  and  more 
cultivated  piety,  you  would  have  been  able  to  avoid? 
Have  you  been  so  nearly  even  with  your  privilege  and  duty, 
that  you  can  find  no  relief  but  to  lay  some  charge  upon 
God,  or  comfort  yourselves  in  the  conviction  that  he  has 
appointed  the  failure  you  deplore?  When  God  marks  out 
a  plan  of  education,  or  sets  up  an  aim  to  direct  its  efforts, 
you  will  see,  at  once,  that  he  could  not  base  it  on  a  want  of 
piety  in  you,  or  on  any  imperfections  that  flow  from  a  want 
of  piety.  It  must  be  a  plan  measured  by  Himself  and  the 
fullness  of  his  own  gracious  intentions. 

Besides,  you  must  not  assume  that  we,  in  this  age,  are 
the  best  Christians  that  have  ever  lived,  or  most  likely  to 
produce  all  the  fruits  of  piety.  An  assumption  so  pleasing 
to  our  vanity  is  more  easily  made  than  verified,  but  vanity 
is  the  weakest  as  it  is  the  cheapest  of  all  arguments.  We 
have  some  good  points,  in  which  we  compare  favorably 
with  other  Christians,  and  Christians  of  other  times,  but 
our  style  of  piety  is  sadly  deficient,  in  many  respects,  and 
that  to  such  a  degree  that  we  have  little  cause  for  self- 
congratulation.  With  all  our  activity  and  boldness  of 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


7 


movement,  there  is  a  certain  hardness  and  rudeness,  a  want 
of  sensibility  to  things  that  do  not  lie  in  action,  which  can 
not  be  too  much  deplored,  or  too  soon  rectified.  We  hold  a 
piety  of  conquest  rather  than  of  love, — a  kind  of  public 
piety,  that  is  strenuous  and  fiery  on  great  occasions,  but 
wants  the  beauty  of  holiness,  wants  constancy,  singleness  of 
aim,  loveliness,  purity,  richness,  blamelessness,  and, — if  I 
may  add  another  term  not  so  immediately  religious,  but  one 
that  carries,  by  association,  a  thousand  religious  qualities 
— wants  domesticity  of  character;  wants  them,  I  mean, 
not  as  compared  with  the  perfect  standard  of  Christ,  but  as 
compared  with  other  examples  of  piety  that  have  been 
given  in  former  times,  and  others  that  are  given  now. 

For  some  reason,  we  do  not  make  a  Christian  atmos¬ 
phere  about  us — do  not  produce  the  conviction  that  we 
are  living  unto  God.  There  is  a  marvelous  want  of  savor 
in  our  piety.  It  is  a  flower  of  autumn,  colored  as  highly 
as  it  need  be  to  the  eye,  but  destitute  of  fragrance.  It  is 
too  much  to  hope  that,  with  such  an  instrument,  we  can 
fulfill  the  true  idea  of  Christian  education.  Any  such 
hope  were  even  presumptuous.  At  the  same  time,  there  is 
no  so  ready  way  of  removing  the  deficiencies  just  described, 
as  to  recall  our  churches  to  their  duties  in  domestic  life; 
those  humble,  daily,  hourly  duties,  where  the  spirit  we 
breathe  shall  be  a  perpetual  element  of  power  and  love, 
bathing  the  life  of  childhood. 

Thus  much  it  was  necessary  to  say,  for  the  removal  of 
prejudices  that  are  likely  to  rise  up  in  your  minds,  and 
make  you  inaccessible  to  the  arguments  I  may  offer.  Let 
all  such  prejudices  be  removed,  or,*  if  this  be  too  much, 
let  them,  at  least,  be  suspended  till  you  have  heard  what  I 
have  to  advance;  for  it  can  not  be  desired  of  you  to  believe 


8 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


any  thing  more  than  what  is  shown  you  by  adequate  proofs. 
Which  also  it  is  right  to  ask  that  you  will  receive,  in  a  spirit 
of  conviction,  such  as  becomes  our  wretched  and  low  at¬ 
tainments,  and  with  a  willingness  to  let  God  be  exalted, 
though  at  the  expense  of  some  abasement  in  ourselves. 
In  pursuing  the  argument,  I  shall — 

I.  Collect  some  considerations  which  occur  to  us,  view¬ 
ing  the  subject  on  the  human  side,  and  then — 

II.  Show  how  far  and  by  what  methods  God  has  jus¬ 
tified,  on  his  part,  the  doctrine  we  maintain. 

There  is  then,  as  the  subject  appears  to  us — 

1.  No  absurdity  in  supposing  that  children  are  to  grow 
up  in  Christ.  On  the  other  hand,  if  there  is  no  absurdity, 
there  is  a  very  clear  moral  incongruity  in  setting  up  a  con¬ 
trary  supposition,  to  be  the  aim  of  a  system  of  Christian 
education.  There  could  not  be  a  worse  or  more  baleful 
implication  given  to  a  child,  than  that  he  is  to  reject  God 
and  all  holy  principle,  till  he  has  come  to  a  mature  age. 
What  authority  have  you  from  the  Scriptures  to  tell  your 
child,  or,  by  any  sign,  to  show  him,  that  you  do  not  ex¬ 
pect  him  truly  to  love  and  obey  God,  till  after  he  has  spent 
whole  years  in  hatred  and  wrong?  What  authority  to 
make  him  feel  that  he  is  the  most  unprivileged  of  all  human 
beings,  capable  of  sin,  but  incapable  of  repentance;  old 
enough  to  resist  all  good,  but  too  young  to  receive  any 
good  whatever  ?  It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  you  have 
some  express  authority  for  a  lesson  so  manifestly  cruel  and 
hurtful,  else  you  would  shudder  to  give  it.  I  ask  you  for 
the  chapter  and  verse,  out  of  which  it  is  derived.  Mean¬ 
time,  wherein  would  it  be  less  incongruous  for  you  to  teach 
your  child  that  he  is  to  lie  and  steal,  and  go  the  whole 
round  of  the  vices,  and  then,  after  he  comes  to  mature 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


9 


age,  reform  his  conduct  by  the  rules  of  virtue?  Perhaps 
you  do  not  give  your  child  to  expect  that  he  is  to  grow  up 
in  sin;  you  only  expect  that  he  will  yourself.  That  is 
scarcely  better:  for  that  which  is  your  expectation,  will 
assuredly  be  his;  and  what  is  more,  any  attempt  to  main¬ 
tain  a  discipline  at  war  with  your  own  secret  expectations, 
will  only  make  a  hollow  and  worthless  figment  of  that  which 
should  be  an  open,  earnest  reality.  You  will  never  prac¬ 
tically  aim  at  what  you  practically  despair  of,  and  if  you 
do  not  practically  aim  to  unite  your  child  to  God,  you  will 
aim  at  something  less;  that  is,  something  unchristian, 
wrong,  sinful. 

But  my  child  is  a  sinner,  you  will  say;  and  how  can 
I  expect  him  to  begin  a  right  life,  until  God  gives  him  a 
new  heart?  This  is  the  common  way  of  speaking,  and  I 
state  the  objection  in  its  own  phraseology,  that  it  may 
recognize  itself.  Who  then  has  told  you  that  a  child  can 
not  have  the  new  heart  of  which  you  speak?  Whence  do 
you  learn  that  if  you  live  the  life  of  Christ,  before  him  and 
with  him,  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  Life  may  not  be  such  as 
to  include  and  quicken  him  also?  And  why  should  it  be 
thought  incredible  that  there  should  be  some  really  good 
principle  awakened  in  the  mind  of  a  child?  For  this  is 
all  that  is  implied  in  a  Christian  state.  The  Christian  is 
one  who  has  simply  begun  to  love  what  is  good  for  its  own 
sake,  and  why  should  it  be  thought  impossible  for  a  child 
to  have  this  love  begotten  in  him?  Take  any  scheme  of 
depravity  you  please,  there  is  yet  nothing  in  it  to  forbid 
the  possibility  that  a  child  should  be  led,  in  his  first  moral 
act,  to  cleave  unto  what  is  good  and  right,  any  more  than 
in  the  first  of  his  twentieth  year.  He  is,  in  that  case,  only 
a  child  converted  to  good,  leading  a  mixed  life  as  all  Chris- 


10 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


tians  do.  The  good  in  him  goes  into  combat  with  the  evil, 
and  holds  a  qualified  sovereignty.  And  why  may  not  this 
internal  conflict  of  goodness  cover  the  whole  life  from  its 
dawn,  as  well  as  any  part  of  it?  And  what  more  appro¬ 
priate  to  the  doctrine  of  spiritual  influence  itself,  than  to 
believe  that  as  the  Spirit  of  Jehovah  fills  all  the  worlds  of 
matter,  and  holds  a  presence  of  power  and  government  in 
all  objects,  so  all  human  souls,  the  infantile  as  well  as  the 
adult,  have  a  nurture  of  the  Spirit  appropriate  to  their  age 
and  their  wants?  What  opinion  is  more  essentially  mon¬ 
strous,  in  fact,  than  that  which  regards  the  Holy  Spirit  as 
having  no  agency  in  the  immature  souls  of  children  who  are 
growing  up,  helpless  and  unconscious,  into  the  perils  of 
time? 

2.  It  is  to  be  expected  that  Christian  education  will 
radically  differ  from  that  which  is  not  Christian.  Now, 
it  is  the  very  character  and  mark  of  all  unchristian  edu¬ 
cation,  that  it  brings  up  the  child  for  future  conversion. 
No  effort  is  made,  save  to  form  a  habit  of  outward  vir¬ 
tue,  and,  if  God  please  to  convert  the  family  to  something 
higher  and  better,  after  they  come  to  the  age  of  maturity, 
it  is  well.  Is  then  Christian  education,  or  the  nurture  of 
the  Lord,  no  way  different  from  this?  Or  is  it  rather  to 
be  supposed  that  it  will  have  a  higher  aim  and  a  more  sacred 
character  ? 

And,  since  it  is  the  distinction  of  Christian  parents, 
that  they  are  themselves  in  the  nurture  of  the  Lord,  since 
Christ  and  the  Divine  Love,  communicated  through  him, 
are  become  the  food  of  their  life,  what  will  they  so  natu¬ 
rally  seek  as  to  have  their  children  partakers  with  them, 
heirs  together  with  them,  in  the  grace  of  life?  I  am  well 
aware  of  the  common  impression  that  Christian  education 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


11 


is  sufficiently  distinguished  by  the  endeavor  of  Christian 
parents  to  teach  their  children  the  lessons  of  Scripture 
history,  and  the  doctrines  or  dogmas  of  Scripture  theology. 
But  if  they  are  given  to  understand,  at  the  same  time, 
that  these  lessons  can  be  expected  to  produce  no  fruit  till 
they  are  come  to  a  mature  age — that  they  are  to  grow  up 
still  in  the  same  character  as  other  children  do,  who  have 
no  such  instruction — what  is  this  but  to  enforce  the  prac¬ 
tical  rejection  of  all  the  lessons  taught  them?  And  which, 
in  truth,  is  better  for  them,  to  grow  up  in  sin  under  Scrip¬ 
ture  light,  with  a  heart  hardened  by  so  many  religious 
lessons;  or  to  grow  up  in  sin,  un vexed  and  unannoyed  by 
the  wearisome  drill  of  lectures  that  only  discourage  all 
practical  benefit?  Which  is  better,  to  be  piously  brought 
up  in  sin,  or  to  be  allowed  quietly  to  vegetate  in  it? 

These  are  questions  that  I  know  not  how  to  decide; 
but  the  doubt  in  which  they  leave  us  will  at  least  suffice 
to  show  that  Christian  education  has,  in  this  view,  no  such 
eminent  advantages  over  that  which  is  unchristian,  as  to 
raise  any  broad  and  dignified  distinction  between  them. 
We  certainly  know  that  much  of  what  is  called  Christian 
nurture,  only  serves  to  make  the  subject  of  religion  odious, 
and  that,  as  nearly  as  we  can  discover,  in  exact  proportion 
to  the  amount  of  religious  teaching  received.  And  no  small 
share  of  the  difficulty  to  be  overcome  afterwards,  in  the 
struggle  of  conversion,  is  created  in  just  this  way. 

On  the  other  hand,  you  will  hear,  for  example,  of  cases 
like  the  following:  A  young  man,  correctly  but  not  relig¬ 
iously  brought  up,  light  and  gay  in  his  manners,  and  thought¬ 
less  hitherto  in  regard  to  any  thing  of  a  serious  nature, 
happens  accidentally  one  Sunday,  while  his  friends  are  gone 
to  ride,  to  take  down  a  book  on  the  evidences  of  Christian- 


12 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


ity.  His  eye,  floating  over  one  of  the  pages,  becomes  fixed, 
and  he  is  surprised  to  find  his  feelings  flowing  out  strangely 
into  its  holy  truths.  He  is  conscious  of  no  struggle  of  hos¬ 
tility,  but  a  new  joy  dawns  in  his  being.  Henceforth,  to 
the  end  of  a  long  and  useful  life,  he  is  a  Christian  man. 
The  love  into  which  he  was  surprised  continues  to  flow, 
and  he  is  remarkable,  in  the  churches,  all  his  life  long,  as 
one  of  the  most  beautiful,  healthful,  and  dignified  examples 
of  Christian  piety.  Now,  a  very  little  miseducation,  called 
Christian,  discouraging  the  piety  it  teaches,  and  making 
enmity  itself  a  necessary  ingredient  in  the  struggle  of  con¬ 
version,  conversion  no  reality  without  a  struggle,  might 
have  sufficed  to  close  the  mind  of  this  man  against  every 
thought  of  religion  to  the  end  of  life. 

Such  facts  (for  the  case  above  given  is  a  fact  and  not 
a  fancy)  compel  us  to  suspect  the  value  of  much  that  is 
called  Christian  education.  They  suggest  the  possibility 
also  that  Christian  piety  should  begin  in  other  and  milder 
forms  of  exercise  than  those  which  commonly  distinguish 
the  conversion  of  adults;  that  Christ  himself,  by  that  re¬ 
newing  Spirit  who  can  sanctify  from  the  womb,  should  be 
practically  infused  into  the  childish  mind;  in  other  words, 
that  the  house,  having  a  domestic  Spirit  of  grace  dwelling 
in  it,  should  become  the  church  of  childhood,  the  table  and 
hearth  a  holy  rite,  and  life  an  element  of  saving  power. 
Something  is  wanted  that  is  better  than  teaching,  something 
that  transcends  mere  effort  and  will-work — the  loveliness 
of  a  good  life,  the  repose  of  faith,  the  confidence  of  right¬ 
eous  expectation,  the  sacred  and  cheerful  liberty  of  the 
Spirit — all  glowing  about  the  young  soul,  as  a  warm  and 
genial  nurture,  and  forming  in  it,  by  methods  that  are 
silent  and  imperceptible,  a  spirit  of  duty  and  religious 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS  13 

obedience  to  God.  This  only  is  Christian  nurture,  the 
nurture  of  the  Lord. 

3.  It  is  a  fact  that  all  Christian  parents  would  like  to 
see  their  children  grow  up  in  piety;  and  the  better  Chris¬ 
tians  they  are,  the  more  earnestly  they  desire  it,  and,  the 
more  lovely  and  constant  the  Christian  spirit  they  mani¬ 
fest,  the  more  likely  it  is,  in  general,  that  their  children  will 
early  display  the  Christian  character.  This  is  current 
opinion.  But  why  should  a  Christian  parent,  the  deeper 
his  piety  and  the  more  closely  he  is  drawn  to  God,  be  led 
to  desire,  the  more  earnestly,  what,  in  God’s  view,  is  even 
absurd  or  impossible  ?  And,  if  it  be  generally  seen  that  the 
children  of  such  are  more  likely  to  become  Christians  early, 
what  forbids  the  hope  that,  if  they  were  riper  still  in  their 
piety,  living  a  more  single  and  Christ-like  life,  and  more 
cultivated  in  their  views  of  family  nurture,  they  might  see 
their  children  grow  up  always  in  piety  towards  God  ?  Or,  if 
they  may  not  always  see  it  as  clearly  as  they  desire,  might 
they  not  still  be  able  to  implant  some  holy  principle,  which 
shall  be  the  seed  of  a  Christian  character  in  their  children, 
though  not  developed  fully  and  visibly  till  a  later  period  in 
life? 

4.  Assuming  the  corruption  of  human  nature,  when 
should  we  think  it  wisest  to  undertake  or  expect  a  remedy  ? 
When  evil  is  young  and  pliant  to  good,  or  when  it  is  con¬ 
firmed  by  years  of  sinful  habit?  And  when,  in  fact,  is  the 
human  heart  found  to  be  so  ductile  to  the  motives  of  re¬ 
ligion,  as  in  the  simple,  ingenuous  age  of  childhood?  How 
easy  is  it  then,  as  compared  with  the  stubbornness  of  adult 
years,  to  make  all  wrong  seem  odious,  all  good  lovely  and 
desirable.  If  not  discouraged  by  some  ill-temper  which 
bruises  all  the  gentle  sensibilities,  or  repelled  by  some  tech- 


14 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


nical  view  of  religious  character  which  puts  it  beyond  his 
age,  how  ready  is  the  child  to  be  taken  by  good,  as  it  were 
beforehand,  and  yield  his  ductile  nature  to  the  truth  and 
Spirit  of  God,  and  to  a  fixed  prejudice  against  all  that  God 
forbids. 

He  can  not  understand,  of  course,  in  the  earliest  stage 
of  childhood,  the  philosophy  of  religion  as  a  renovated 
experience,  and  that  is  not  the  form  of  the  first  lessons  he 
is  to  receive.  He  is  not  to  be  told  that  he  must  have  a  new 
heart  and  exercise  faith  in  Christ’s  atonement.  We  are 
to  understand  that  a  right  spirit  may  be  virtually  exer¬ 
cised  in  children,  when,  as  yet,  it  is  not  intellectually  re¬ 
ceived,  or  as  a  form  of  doctrine.  Thus,  if  they  are  put  upon 
an  effort  to  be  good,  connecting  the  fact  that  God  desires 
it  and  will  help  them  in  the  endeavor,  that  is  all  which,  in  a 
very  early  age,  they  can  receive,  and  that  includes  every 
thing — repentance,  love,  duty,  dependence,  faith.  Nay,  the 
operative  truth  necessary  to  a  new  life  may  possibly  be 
communicated  through  and  from  the  parent,  being  revealed 
in  his  looks,  manners,  and  ways  of  life,  before  they  are  of 
an  age  to  understand  the  teaching  of  words,  for  the  Chris¬ 
tian  scheme,  the  gospel,  is  really  wrapped  up  in  the  life  of 
every  Christian  parent,  and  beams  out  from  him  as  a  living 
epistle,  before  it  escapes  from  the  lips  or  is  taught  in  words. 
And  the  Spirit  of  truth  may  as  well  make  this  living  truth 
effectual  as  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  itself. 

Never  is  it  too  early  for  good  to  be  communicated.  In¬ 
fancy  and  childhood  are  the  ages  most  pliant  to  good.  And 
who  can  think  it  necessary  that  the  plastic  nature  of  child¬ 
hood  must  first  be  hardened  into  stone,  and  stiffened  into 
enmity  towards  God  and  all  duty,  before  it  can  become  a 
candidate  for  Christian  character!  There  could  not  be  a 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS  15 

more  unnecessary  mistake,  and  it  is  as  unnatural  and  per¬ 
nicious,  I  fear,  as  it  is  unnecessary. 

There  are  many  who  assume  the  radical  goodness  of 
human  nature,  and  the  work  of  Christian  education  is,  in 
their  view,  only  to  educate  or  educe  the  good  that  is  in  us. 
Let  no  one  be  disturbed  by  the  suspicion  of  a  coincidence 
between  what  I  have  here  said  and  such  a  theory.  The 
natural  pravity  of  man  is  plainly  asserted  in  the  Scriptures, 
and,  if  it  were  not,  the  familiar  laws  of  physiology  would 
require  us  to  believe  what  amounts  to  the  same  thing.  And 
if  neither  Scripture  nor  physiology  taught  us  the  doctrine, 
if  the  child  was  born  as  clear  of  natural  prejudice  or  damage 
as  Adam  before  his  sin,  spiritual  education,  or,  what  is  the 
same,  probation,  that  which  trains  a  being  for  a  stable,  in¬ 
telligent  virtue  hereafter,  would  still  involve  an  experiment 
of  evil,  therefore  a  fall  and  a  bondage  under  the  laws  of  evil; 
so  that,  view  the  matter  as  we  will,  there  is  no  so  unreason¬ 
able  assumption,  none  so  wide  of  all  just  philosophy,  as 
that  which  proposes  to  form  a  child  to  virtue,  by  simply 
educing  or  drawing  out  what  is  in  him. 

The  growth  of  Christian  virtue  is  no  vegetable  process,-* 
no  mere  onward  development.  It  involves  a  struggle  with 
evil,  a  fall  and  a  rescue.  The  soul  becomes  established  in 
holy  virtue,  as  a  free  exercise,  only  as  it  is  passed  round  the 
corner  of  fall  and  redemption,  ascending  thus  unto  God 
through  a  double  experience,  in  which  it  learns  the  bitter¬ 
ness  of  evil  and  the  worth  of  good,  fighting  its  way  out  of 
one,  and  achieving  the  other  as  a  victory.  The  child,  there¬ 
fore,  may  as  well  begin  life  under  a  law  of  hereditary  dam¬ 
age,  as  to  plunge  himself  into  evil  by  his  own  experiment, 
which  he  will  as  naturally  do  from  the  simple  impulse  of 
curiosity,  or  the  instinct  of  knowledge,  as  from  any  noxious 


16 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


quality  in  his  mold  derived  by  descent.  For  it  is  not  sin 
which  he  derives  from  his  parents;  at  least,  not  sin  in  any 
sense  which  imports  blame,  but  only  some  prejudice  to  the 
perfect  harmony  of  this  mold,  some  kind  of  pravity  or  ob¬ 
liquity  which  inclines  him  to  evil.  These  suggestions  are 
offered,  not  as  necessary  to  be  received  in  every  particular, 
but  simply  to  show  that  the  scheme  of  education  proposed 
is  not  to  be  identified  with  another,  which  assumes  the 
radical  goodness  of  human  nature,  and  according  to  which, 
if  it  be  true,  Christian  education  is  insignificant. 

5.  It  is  implied  in  all  our  religious  philosophy,  that  if  a 
child  ever  does  any  thing  in  a  right  spirit,  ever  loves  any 
thing  because  it  is  good  and  right,  it  involves  the  dawn  of  a 
new  life.  This  we  can  not  deny  or  doubt  without  bringing 
in  question  our  whole  scheme  of  doctrine.  Is  it  then  in¬ 
credible  that  some  really  good  feeling  should  be  called  into 
exercise  in  a  child?  In  all  the  discipline  of  the  house, 
quickened  as  it  should  be  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  is  it  true 
that  he  can  never  once  be  brought  to  submit  to  parental 
authority  lovingly  and  because  it  is  right?  Must  we  even 
hold  the  absurdity  of  the  Scripture  counsel — “  Children  obey 
your  parents  in  the  Lord,  for  this  is  right  ?  ”  When  we  speak 
thus  of  a  love  for  what  is  right  and  good,  we  must  of  course 
discriminate  between  the  mere  excitement  of  a  natural 
sensibility  to  pleasure  in  the  contemplation  of  what  is  good 
(of  which  the  worst  minds  are  more  or  less  capable)  and  a 
practicable  subordination  of  the  soul  to  its  power,  a 
practicable  embrace  of  its  law.  The  child  must  not  only  be 
touched  with  some  gentle  emotions  towards  what  is  right, 
but  he  must  love  it  with  a  fixed  love,  love  it  for  the  sake  of 
its  principle,  receive  it  as  a  vital  and  formative  power. 

Nor  is  there  any  age  which  offers  itself  to  God’s  truth 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


17 


and  love,  and  to  that  Quickening  Spirit  whence  all  good 
proceeds,  with  so  much  of  ductile  feeling  and  susceptibilities 
so  tender.  The  child  is  under  parental  authority  too  for 
the  very  purpose,  it  would  seem,  of  having  the  otherwise 
abstract  principle  of  all  duty  impersonated  in  his  parents, 
and  thus  brought  home  to  his  practical  embrace;  so  that, 
learning  to  obey  his  parents  in  the  Lord,  because  it  is  right, 
he  may  thus  receive,  before  he  can  receive  it  intellectually, 
the  principle  of  all  piety  and  holy  obedience.  And  when  he 
is  brought  to  exercise  a  spirit  of  true  and  loving  submission 
to  the  good  law  of  his  parents,  what  will  you  see,  many 
times,  but  a  look  of  childish  joy,  and  a  happy  sweetness  of 
manner,  and  a  ready  delight  in  authority,  as  like  to  all  the 
demonstrations  of  Christian  experience  as  any  thing  child¬ 
ish  can  be  to  what  is  mature? 

6.  Children  have  been  so  trained  as  never  to  remember 
the  time  when  they  began  to  be  religious.  Baxter  was,  at 
one  time,  greatly  troubled  concerning  himself,  because  he 
could  recollect  no  time  when  there  was  a  gracious  change  in 
his  character.  But  he  discovered,  at  length,  that  “  educa¬ 
tion  is  as  properly  a  means  of  grace  as  preaching,”  and  thus 
found  the  sweeter  comfort  in  his  love  to  God,  that  he  learned 
to  love  him  so  early.  The  European  churches,  generally, 
regard  Christian  piety  more  as  a  habit  of  life,  formed  under 
the  training  of  childhood,  and  less  as  a  marked  spiritual 
change  in  experience.  In  Germany,  for  example,  the  church 
includes  all  the  people,  and  it  is  remarkable  that,  under  a 
scheme  so  loose,  and  with  so  much  of  pernicious  error  taught 
in  the  pulpit,  there  is  yet  so  much  of  deep  religious  feeling, 
so  much  of  lovely  and  simple  character,  and  a  savor  of 
Christian  piety  so  generally  prevalent  in  the  community. 
So  true  is  this,  that  the  German  people  are  every  day  spoken 


18 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


of  as  a  people  religious  by  nature;  no  other  way  being  ob¬ 
served  of  accounting  for  the  strong  religious  bent  they  mani¬ 
fest.  Whereas  it  is  due,  beyond  any  reasonable  question, 
to  the  fact  that  children  are  placed  under  a  form  of  treat¬ 
ment  which  expects  them  to  be  religious,  and  are  not  dis¬ 
couraged  by  the  demand  of  an  experience  above  their  years. 

Again,  the  Moravian  Brethren,  it  is  agreed  by  all,  give 
as  ripe  and  graceful  an  exhibition  of  piety  as  any  body  of 
Christians  living  on  the  earth,  and  it  is  the  radical  distinc¬ 
tion  of  their  system  that  it  rests  its  power  on  Christian 
education.  They  make  their  churches  schools  of  holy  nur¬ 
ture  to  childhood,  and  expect  their  children  to  grow  up 
there  as  plants  in  the  house  of  the  Lord.  Accordingly  it 
is  affirmed  that  not  one  in  ten  of  the  members  of  that  church 
recollects  any  time  when  he  began  to  be  religious.  Is  it 
then  incredible  that  what  has  been  can  be?  Would  it  not 
be  wiser  and  more  modest,  when  facts  are  against  us,  to 
admit  that  there  is  certainly  some  bad  error,  either  in  our 
life,  or  in  our  doctrine,  or  in  both,  which  it  becomes  us  to 
amend  ? 

Once  more,  if  we  narrowly  examine  the  relation  of  parent 
and  child,  we  shall  not  fail  to  discover  something  like  a 
law  of  organic  connection,  as  regards  character,  subsisting 
between  them.  Such  a  connection  as  makes  it  easy  to  be¬ 
lieve,  and  natural  to  expect,  that  the  faith  of  the  one  will 
be  propagated  in  the  other.  Perhaps  I  should  rather  say, 
such  a  connection  as  induces  the  conviction  that  the  char¬ 
acter  of  one  is  actually  included  in  that  of  the  other,  as  a 
seed  is  formed  in  the  capsule;  and  being  there  matured,  by 
a  nutriment  derived  from  the  stem,  is  gradually  separated 
from  it.  It  is  a  singular  fact  that  many  believe  substan¬ 
tially  the  same  thing  in  regard  to  evil  character,  but  have  no 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


19 


thought  of  any  such  possibility  in  regard  to  good.  There 
has  been  much  speculation,  of  late,  as  to  whether  a  child  is 
born  in  depravity,  or  whether  the  depraved  character  is 
superinduced  afterwards.  But,  like  many  other  great  ques¬ 
tions,  it  determines  much  less  than  is  commonly  supposed; 
for,  according  to  the  most  proper  view  of  the  subject,  a  child 
is  really  not  born  till  he  emerges  from  the  infantile  state,  and 
never  before  that  time  can  he  be  said  to  receive  a  separate 
and  properly  individual  nature. 

The  declarations  of  Scripture,  and  the  laws  of  physiol¬ 
ogy,  I  have  already  intimated,  compel  the  belief  that  a 
child’s  nature  is  somewhat  depravated  by  descent  from 
parents,  who  are  under  the  corrupting  effects  of  sin.  But 
this,  taken  as  a  question  relating  to  the  mere  punctum  tem - 
poris,  or  precise  point  of  birth,  is  not  a  question  of  any  so 
grave  import  as  is  generally  supposed;  for  the  child,  after 
birth,  is  still  within  the  matrix  of  the  parental  life,  and  will 
be,  more  or  less,  for  many  years.  And  the  parental  life 
will  be  flowing  into  him  all  that  time,  just  as  naturally,  and 
by  a  law  as  truly  organic,  as  when  the  sap  of  the  trunk  flows 
into  a  limb.  We  must  not  govern  our  thoughts,  in  such  a 
matter,  by  our  eyes;  and  because  the  physical  separation 
has  taken  place  conclude  that  no  organic  relation  remains. 
Even  the  physical  being  of  the  child  is  dependent  still  for 
many  months,  in  the  matter  of  nutrition,  on  organic  proc¬ 
esses  not  in  itself.  Meantime,  the  mental  being  and  char¬ 
acter  have  scarcely  begun  to  have  a  proper  individual  life. 
Will,  in  connection  with  conscience,  is  the  basis  of  per¬ 
sonality  or  individuality,  and  these  exist  as  yet  only  in 
their  rudimental  type,  as  when  the  form  of  a  seed  is  be¬ 
ginning  to  be  unfolded  at  the  root  of  a  flower. 

At  first  the  child  is  held  as  a  mere  passive  lump  in  the 


20 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


arms,  and  he  opens  into  conscious  life  under  the  soul  of  the 
parent  streaming  into  his  eyes  and  ears,  through  the  man¬ 
ners  and  tones  of  the  nursery.  The  kind  and  degree  of 
passivity  are  gradually  changed  as  life  advances.  A  little 
farther  on  it  is  observed  that  a  smile  wakens  a  smile;  any 
kind  of  sentiment  or  passion,  playing  in  the  face  of  the 
parent,  wakens  a  responsive  sentiment  or  passion.  Irrita¬ 
tion  irritates,  a  frown  withers,  love  expands  a  look  congenial 
to  itself,  and  why  not  holy  love  ?  Next  the  ear  is  opened  to 
the  understanding  of  words,  but  what  words  the  child  shall 
hear,  he  can  not  choose,  and  has  as  little  capacity  to  select 
the  sentiments  that  are  poured  into  his  soul.  Farther  on, 
the  parents  begin  to  govern  him  by  appeals  to  will,  ex¬ 
pressed  in  commands,  and  whatever  their  requirement  may 
be,  he  can  as  little  withstand  it  as  the  violet  can  cool  the 
scorching  sun,  or  the  tattered  leaf  can  tame  the  hurricane. 
Next  they  appoint  his  school,  choose  his  books,  regulate  his 
company,  decide  what  form  of  religion,  and  what  religious 
opinions  he  shall  be  taught,  by  taking  him  to  a  church  of 
their  own  selection.  In  all  this  they  infringe  upon  no  right 
of  the  child,  they  only  fulfill  an  office  which  belongs  to  them. 
Their  will  and  character  are  designed  to  be  the  matrix  of 
the  child’s  will  and  character.  Meantime,  he  approaches 
more  and  more  closely,  and  by  a  gradual  process,  to  the 
proper  rank  and  responsibility  of  an  individual  creature, 
during  all  which  process  of  separation,  he  is  having  their 
exercises  and  ways  translated  into  him.  Then,  at  last,  he 
comes  forth  to  act  his  part  in  such  color  of  evil,  and  why  not 
of  good,  as  he  has  derived  from  them. 

'  The  tendency  of  all  our  modern  speculations  is  to  an  ex¬ 
treme  individualism,  and  we  carry  our  doctrines  of  free  will 
so  far  as  to  make  little  or  nothing  of  organic  laws;  not  ob- 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


21 


serving  that  character  may  be,  to  a  great  extent,  only  the 
free  development  of  exercises  previously  wrought  in  us,  or 
extended  to  us,  when  other  wills  had  us  within  their  sphere. 
We  have  much  to  say  about  the  beginning  of  moral  agency, 
and  we  seem  to  fancy  that  there  is  some  definite  moment 
when  a  child  becomes  a  moral  agent,  passing  out  of  a  con¬ 
dition  where  he  is  a  moral  nullity,  and  where  no  moral  agency 
touches  his  being.  Whereas  he  is  rather  to  be  regarded,  at 
the  first,  as  lying  within  the  moral  agency  of  the  parent,  and 
passing  out,  by  degrees,  through  a  course  of  mixed  agency, 
to  a  proper  independency  and  self-possession.  The  sup¬ 
position  that  he  becomes,  at  some  certain  moment,  a  com¬ 
plete  moral  agent,  which  a  moment  before  he  was  not,  is 
clumsy  and  has  no  agreement  with  observation.  The 
separation  is  gradual.  He  is  never,  at  any  moment  after 
birth,  to  be  regarded  as  perfectly  beyond  the  sphere  of  good 
and  bad  exercises;  for  the  parent  exercises  himself  in  the 
child,  playing  his  emotions  and  sentiments,  and  working  a 
character  in  him,  by  virtue  of  an  organic  power. 

And  this  is  the  very  idea  of  Christian  education,  that  it 
i  begins  with  nurture  or  cultivation.  And  the  intention  is 
that  the  Christian  life  and  spirit  of  the  parents,  which  are  in 
and  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  shall  flow  into  the  mind  of  the 
child,  to  blend  with  his  incipient  and  half-formed  exercises; 
that  they  shall  thus  beget  their  own  good  within  him — their 
thoughts,  opinions,  faith,  and  love,  which  are  to  become  a 
little  more,  and  yet  a  little  more,  his  own  separate  exercise, 
but  still  the  same  in  character.  The  contrary  assumption, 
that  virtue  must  be  the  product  of  separate  and  absolutely 
independent  choice,  is  pure  assumption.  As  regards  the 
measure  of  personal  merit  and  demerit,  it  is  doubtless  true 
that  every  subject  of  God  is  to  be  responsible  only  for  what 


22 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


is  his  own.  But  virtue  still  is  rather  a  state  of  being  than 
an  act  or  series  of  acts;  and,  if  we  look  at  the  causes  which 
induce  or  prepare  such  a  state,  the  will  of  the  person  himself 
may  have  a  part  among  these  causes  more  or  less  important, 
and  it  works  no  absurdity  to  suppose  that  one  may  be  even 
prepared  to  such  a  state  by  causes  prior  to  his  own  will; 
so  that,  when  he  sets  off  to  act  for  himself,  his  struggle  and 
duty  may  be  rather  to  sustain  and  perfect  the  state  begun 
than  to  produce  a  new  one.  Certain  it  is  that  we  are  never, 
at  any  age,  so  independent  as  to  be  wholly  out  of  the  reach 
of  organic  laws  which  affect  our  character. 

All  society  is  organic — the  church,  the  state,  the  school, 
the  family;  and  there  is  a  spirit  in  each  of  these  organisms, 
peculiar  to  itself  and  more  or  less  hostile,  more  or  less 
favorable  to  religious  character,  and  to  some  extent,  at  least, 
sovereign  over  the  individual  man.  A  very  great  share  of 
the  power  in  what  is  called  a  revival  of  religion  is  organic 
power;  nor  is  it  any  the  less  divine  on  that  account.  The 
child  is  only  more  within  the  power  of  organic  laws  than  we 
all  are.  We  possess  only  a  mixed  individuality  all  our 
life  long.  A  pure,  separate,  individual  man,  living  ivholly 
within  and  from  himself,  is  a  mere  fiction.  No  such  per¬ 
son  ever  existed  or  ever  can.  I  need  not  say  that  this  view 
of  an  organic  connection  of  character  subsisting  between 
parent  and  child  lays  a  basis  for  notions  of  Christian  edu¬ 
cation  far  different  from  those  which  now  prevail,  under 
the  cover  of  a  merely  fictitious  and  mischievous  individual¬ 
ism. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  necessary  to  add,  that,  in  the  strong 
language  I  have  used  concerning  the  organic  connection  of 
character  between  the  parent  and  the  child,  it  is  not  designed 
to  assert  a  power  in  the  parent  to  renew  the  child,  or  that 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


23 


the  child  can  be  renewed  by  any  agency  of  the  Spirit  less 
immediate  than  that  which  renews  the  parent  himself. 
When  a  germ  is  formed  on  the  stem  of  any  plant,  the  forma¬ 
tive  instinct  of  the  plant  may  be  said  in  one  view  to  produce 
it;  but  the  same  solar  heat  which  quickens  the  plant  must 
quicken  also  the  germ  and  sustain  the  internal  action  of 
growth  by  a  common  presence  in  both.  So,  if  there  be 
an  organic  power  of  character  in  the  parent,  such  as  that  of 
which  I  have  spoken,  it  is  not  a  complete  power  in  itself, 
but  only  such  a  power  as  demands  the  realizing  presence 
of  the  Spirit  of  God,  both  in  the  parent  and  the  child,  to 
give  it  effect.  As  Paul  said,  “I  have  begotten  you  through 
the  gospel,”  so  may  we  say  of  the  parent,  who,  having  a 
living  gospel  enveloped  in  his  life,  brings  it  into  organic 
connection  with  the  soul  of  childhood.  But  the  declara¬ 
tion  excludes  the  necessity  of  a  divine  influence,  not  more 
in  one  case  than  in  the  other. 

Such  are  some  of  the  considerations  that  offer  themselves, 
viewing  our  subject  on  the  human  side,  or  as  it  appears  in 
the  light  of  human  evidence — all  concurring  to  produce  the 
conviction  that  it  is  the  only  true  idea  of  Christian  educa¬ 
tion  that  the  child  is  to  grow  up  in  the  life  of  the  parent 
and  be  a  Christian  in  principle  from  his  earliest  years. 


II 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 

“Bring  them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord.” — 
Ephesians  vi.  4. 

We  proceed  now  to  inquire — 

II.  How  far  God,  in  the  revelation  made  of  his  char¬ 
acter  and  will,  favors  the  view  of  Christian  nurture  vindi¬ 
cated,  in  a  former  discourse,  by  arguments  and  evidences 
of  an  inferior  nature?  And — 

1.  According  to  all  that  God  has  taught  us  concerning 
his  own  dispositions,  he  desires  on  his  part  that  children 
should  grow  up  in  piety  as  earnestly  as  the  parent  can  de¬ 
sire  it;  nay,  as  much  more  earnestly,  as  he  hates  sin  more 
intensely  and  desires  good  with  less  mixture  of  qualification. 
Goodness,  or  the  production  of  goodness,  is  the  supreme 
end  of  God,  and  therefore,  we  know,  on  first  principles,  that 
he  desires  to  bestow  whatsoever  spiritual  grace  is  necessary 
to  the  moral  renovation  of  childhood,  and  will  do  it,  unless 
some  collateral  reasons  in  his  plan,  involving  the  extension 
of  holy  virtue,  require  him  to  withhold. 

Thus,  if  nothing  were  hung  upon  parental  faithfulness 
and  example,  if  the  child  were  not  used,  in  some  degree  or 
way,  as  an  argument  to  hold  the  parent  to  a  life  of  Chris¬ 
tian  diligence,  then  the  good  principle  in  the  parent  might 
lack  the  necessary  stimulus  to  bring  it  to  maturity.  Or,  if 
all  children  alike,  in  spite  of  the  evil  and  unchristian  example 

of  the  house,  were  to  be  started  into  life  as  spiritually  re- 

24 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


25 


newed,  one  of  the  strongest  motives  to  holy  living  would  be 
taken  away  from  parents,  in  the  fact  that  their  children  are 
safe  as  regards  a  good  beginning,  without  any  carefulness 
in  them  or  prayerfulness  in  their  life;  and  their  own  virtue 
might  so  overgrow  itself  with  weeds  as  never  to  attain  to  a 
sound  maturity.  Let  it  be  enough  to  know,  on  first  prin¬ 
ciples  in  the  character  of  God,  that  he  will  so  dispense  his 
spiritual  agency  to  you  and  to  your  children,  as  to  produce, 
considering  the  freedom  of  you  both,  the  best  measure  and 
the  ripest  state  of  holy  virtue.  And  how  far  short  is  this 
of  the  conclusion,  that  if  you  live  as  you  ought  and  may 
yourselves,  God  will  so  dispense  his  Spirit  that  you  may  see 
your  children  grow  up  in  piety? 

Observe,  too,  that  he  expressly  pledges  his  Holy  Spirit 
to  you,  as  one  of  his  first  gifts,  and,  what  is  more,  even 
commands  you  to  be  filled  with  the  Spirit;  and  considering 
the  organic  relation  that  subsists,  by  his  own  appointment, 
between  you  and  your  children,  how  far  off  is  he,  in  this, 
from  pledging  you  a  mercy  that  ^accrues  to  their  benefit? 
He  appoints  you  also  to  be  a  light  to  the  world,  and,  by  the 
grace  he  pours  into  your  being,  prepares  you  to  be;  how 
much  more  a  light  to  minds  that  are  fed  by  simple  nurture 
from  your  own?  And  when  you  consider  how  fond  he  is, 
if  I  may  so  speak,  in  the  blessings  he  pours  on  the  good,  of 
gathering  their  children  with  them  in  the  same  circle  of 
favor,  how  many  of  his  promises,  in  all  ages,  run — “  to  you 
and  to  your  children,”  what  better  assurance  can  you  rea¬ 
sonably  ask,  to  fortify  your  confidence  in  whatever  spiritual 
grace  may  be  necessary  to  your  utmost  success? 

2.  If  there  be  any  such  thing  as  Christian  nurture,  dis¬ 
tinguished  from  that  which  is  not  Christian,  which  is  gen¬ 
erally  admitted,  and  by  the  Scriptures  clearly  asserted, 


26 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


then  is  it  some  kind  of  nurture  which  God  appoints.  Does 
it  then  accord  with  the  known  character  of  God  to  appoint 
a  scheme  of  education,  the  only  proper  result  of  which  shall 
be  that  children  are  trained  up  under  it  in  sin?  It  would 
not  be  more  absurd  to  suppose  that  God  has  appointed 
church  education  to  produce  a  first  crop  of  sin,  and  then  a 
crop  of  holiness.  God  appoints  nothing  of  which  sin,  and 
only  sin,  is  to  be  the  proper  and  legitimate  result,  whether 
for  a  longer  or  a  shorter  time;  least  of  all,  a  mode  of  training 
which  is  to  produce  sin.  Holy  virtue  is  the  aim  of  every 
plan  God  adopts,  every  means  he  prescribes,  and  we  have 
no  right  to  look  only  for  sin  in  that  which  he  has  appointed 
as  a  means  of  virtue.  We  can  not  do  it  understanding^ 
without  great  impiety. 

3.  God  does  expressly  lay  it  upon  us  to  expect  that  our 
children  will  grow  up  in  piety,  under  the  parental  nurture, 
and  assumes  the  possibility  that  such  a  result  may  ordi¬ 
narily  be  realized.  “Train  up  a  child” — how?  for  future 
conversion? — No,  but  “in  the  way  he  should  go,  and  when 
he  is  old  he  will  not  depart  from  it.”  If  it  be  said  that  this 
relates  only  to  outward  habits  of  virtue  and  vice,  not  to 
spiritual  life,  the  Old  Testament,  I  reply,  does  not  raise 
that  distinction,  as  it  is  raised  in  the  New.  It  puts  all 
good  together,  all  evil  together,  and  regards  a  child  trained 
up  in  the  way  he  should  go,  as  going  in  all  the  ways,  and 
fulfilling  all  the  ideas  of  virtue.  The  phraseology  of  the 
New  Testament  carries  the  same  import.  “Bring  them  up 
in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord,”  a  form  of  ex¬ 
pression,  which  indicates  the  existence  of  a  Divine  nurture 
that  is  to  encompass  the  child  and  mold  him  unto  God;  so 
that  he  shall  be  brought  up,  as  it  were,  in  Him. 

4.  A  time  is  foretold,  as  our  churches  generally  believe, 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


27 


when  all  shall  know  God,  even  from  the  least  to  the  great¬ 
est;  that  is,  shall  spiritually  know  him,  or  so  that  there 
shall  be  no  need  of  exhorting  one  another  to  know  him; 
for  intellectual  knowledge  is  not  carried  by  exhortation. 
If  such  a  time  is  ever  to  come,  then,  at  least,  children  are 
to  grow  up  in  Christ.  Can  it  come  too  soon?  And,  if  we 
have  the  opinion  that  any  such  thing  is  impossible,  either 
we,  or  those  who  come  after  us,  must  get  rid  of  it.  A  prin¬ 
cipal  reason  why  the  great  expectations  of  the  future,  that 
we,  in  this  age,  are  giving  out  so  confidently,  seem  only 
visionary  and  idle  dreams  to  many,  is  that  we  are  perpetu¬ 
ally  assuming  their  impossibility  ourselves.  Our  very  theory 
of  religion  is  that  men  are  to  grow  up  in  evil,  and  be  dragged 
into  the  church  of  God  by  conquest.  The  world  is  to  lie 
in  halves,  and  the  kingdom  of  God  is  to  stretch  itself  side 
by  side  with  the  kingdom  of  darkness,  making  sallies  into  it, 
and  taking  captive  those  who  are  sufficiently  hardened  and 
bronzed  in  guiltiness  to  be  converted ! 

Thus  we  assume  even  the  absurdity  of  all  our  expecta¬ 
tions  in  regard  to  the  possible  advancement  of  human 
society  and  the  universal  prevalence  of  Christian  virtue. 
And  thus  we  throw  an  air  of  extravagance  and  unreason 
over  all  we  do.  Whereas  there  is  a  sober  and  rational  possi¬ 
bility  that  human  society  should  be  universally  pervaded 
by  Christian  virtue.  The  Christian  scheme  has  a  scope  of 
intention,  and  instruments  and  powers  adequate  to  this: 
it  descends  upon  the  world  to  claim  all  souls  for  its  dominion 
— all  men  of  all  climes,  all  ages  from  childhood  to  the  grave. 
It  is,  indeed,  a  plan  which  supposes  the  existence  of  sin,  and 
sin  will  be  in  the  world,  and  in  all  hearts  in  it,  as  long  as  the 
world  or  human  society  continues;  but  the  scheme  has  a 
breadth  of  conception,  and  has  powers  and  provisions  em- 


28 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


bodied  in  it,  which,  apart  from  all  promises  and  predictions, 
certify  us  of  a  day  when  it  will  reign  in  all  human  hearts, 
and  all  that  live  shall  live  in  Christ.  Let  us  either  renounce 
any  such  confidence,  or  show,  by  a  thorough  consistency  in 
our  religious  doctrines,  that  we  hold  it  deliberately  and 
manfully. 

5.  We  discover  in  the  Scriptures  that  the  organic  law  of 
which  I  have  spoken  is  distinctly  recognized,  and  that 
character  in  children  is  often  regarded  as,  in  some  very  im¬ 
portant  sense,  derivative  from  their  parents.  It  is  thus 
that  “sin  has  passed  upon  all  men.”  “By  the  offense  of 
one,  judgment  came  upon  all.”  Christian  faith  is  also 
spoken  of  in  a  similar  way — “The  unfeigned  faith,  which 
*  dwelt  first  in  thy  grandmother  Lois,  and  thy  mother  Eunice, 
and,  I  am  persuaded,  that  in  thee  also.”  Not  that,  in  the 
bald  and  naked  sense,  it  had  descended  thus  through  three 
generations.  But  the  apostle  conceives  a  power,  in  the 
good  life  of  these  mothers,  that  must  needs  transmit  some 
flavor  of  piety.  In  like  manner,  God  is  represented  as 
“keeping  covenant  and  mercy  with  them  that  love  him  and 
keep  his  commandments,  to  a  thousand  generations”;  which 
if  it  signifies  any  thing,  amounts  to  a  declaration  that  he 
will  spiritually  own  and  bless  every  succeeding  generation 
to  the  end  of  the  world,  if  only  the  preceding  will  live  so 
as  to  be  fit  vehicles  of  his  blessing;  for  it  is  not  any  covenant, 
as  a  form  of  mutual  contract,  which  carries  the  divine  favor, 
but  it  is  the  loving  Him  rather  and  keeping  His  command¬ 
ments,  by  an  upright,  godly  life,  which  sets  the  parents  on 
terms  of  friendship  with  God  and  secures  the  inhabitation 
of  his  power. 

Declarations  like  those  in  the  eighteenth  chapter  of 
Ezekiel,  “the  son  shall  not  bear  the  iniquity  of  the  father,” 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


29 


— “the  soul  that  sinneth,  it  shall  die/’ — are  hastily  applied 
by  many,  not  to  show  that  the  child  is  to  be  punished  only 
for  his  own  sin,  which  is  their  true  import,  but,  as  if  it  were 
the  same  thing,  to  disprove  the  fact  of  an  organic  connection, 
by  which  children  receive  a  character  from  their  parents. 
Whereas  this  latter  is  a  truth  which  we  see  with  our  eyes, 
and  one  that  is  constantly  affirmed  in  the  Scriptures,  both 
in  respect  to  bad  character  and  to  good.  “God  layeth  up 
the  iniquity  of  the  wicked  for  his  children,” — “Visiting  the 
iniquities  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children  to  the  third  and 
fourth  generation.”  By  which  we  are  to  understand,  what 
is  every  day  exhibited  in  actual  historic  proof,  that  the 
wickedness  of  parents  propagates  itself  in  the  character  and 
condition  of  their  children,  and  that  it  ordinarily  requires 
three  or  four  generations  to  ripen  the  sad  harvest  of  misery 
and  debasement.  Again,  on  the  other  side,  “  he  hath  blessed 
thy  children  with  thee,” — “For  the  good  of  them  and  their 
children  after  them,” — “For  the  promise  is  to  you  and  to 
your  children.”  The  Scriptures  have  a  perpetual  habit,  if 
I  may  so  speak,  of  associating  children  with  the  character 
and  destiny  of  their  parents.  In  this  respect,  they  main¬ 
tain  a  marked  contrast  with  the  extreme  individualism  of  - 
our  modern  philosophy.  They  do  not  always  regard  the 
individual  as  an  isolated  unit,  but  they  often  look  upon  men 
as  they  exist,  in  families  and  races,  and  under  organic  laws. 

Something  has  undoubtedly  been  gained  to  modern  theol¬ 
ogy,  as  a  human  science,  by  fixing  the  attention  strongly 
upon  the  individual  man  as  a  moral  agent,  immediately 
related  to  God  and  responsible  only  for  his  own  actions;  at 
the  same  time  there  was  a  truth,  an  important  truth,  under¬ 
lying  the  old  doctrine  of  federal  headship  and  original  or 
imputed  sin,  though  strangely  misconceived,  which  we 


30 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


seem,  in  our  one-sided  speculations,  to  have  quite  lost  sight 
of.  And  how  can  we  ever  attain  to  any  right  conception 
of  organic  duties,  until  we  discover  the  reality  of  organic 
powers  and  relations?  And  how  can  we  hope  to  set  our¬ 
selves  in  harmony  with  the  Scriptures,  in  regard  to  family 
nurture,  or  household  baptism,  or  any  other  kindred  sub¬ 
ject,  while  our  theories  exclude  or  overlook  precisely  that 
which  is  the  base  of  their  teachings  and  appointments? 
This  brings  me  to  my — 

Last  argument,  which  is  drawn  from  infant  or  household 
baptism — a  rite  which  supposes  the  fact  of  an  organic  con¬ 
nection  of  character  between  the  parent  and  the  child;  a 
seal  of  faith  in  the  parent,  applied  over  to  the  child  on  the 
ground  of  a  presumption  that  his  faith  is  wrapped  up  in 
the  parent’s  faith;  so  that  he  is  accounted  a  believer  from 
the  beginning.  We  must  distinguish  here  between  a  fact 
and  a  presumption  of  fact.  If  you  look  upon  a  seed  of  wheat, 
it  contains,  in  itself,  presumptively,  a  thousand  generations 
of  wheat,  though  by  reason  of  some  fault  in  the  cultivation, 
or  some  speck  of  diseased  matter  in  itself,  it  may,  in  fact, 
never  reproduce  at  all.  So  the  Christian  parent  has,  in  his 
character,  a  germ  which  has  power,  presumptively,  to  pro¬ 
duce  its  like  in  his  children,  though  by  reason  of  some  bad 
fault  in  itself,  or  possibly  some  outward  hindrance  in  the 
Church,  or  some  providence  of  death,  it  may  fail  to  do  so. 
Thus  it  is  that  infant  baptism  becomes  an  appropriate  rite. 
It  sees  the  child  in  the  parent,  counts  him  presumptively  a 
believer  and  a  Christian,  and,  with  the  parent,  baptizes  him 
also. 

I  have  no  desire  to  press  the  passages  in  which  mention 
is  made  of  household  baptism  beyond  their  true  import. 
Paul  is  said  to  have  “baptized  the  household  of  Stephanas.” 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


31 


The  power  of  this  proof-text  does  not  depend,  in  the  least, 
on  the  fact  that  there  were  children  in  the  household  of 
Stephanas,  but  simply  on  the  form  of  the  language.  In¬ 
deed,  it  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  the  argument  for 
infant  baptism  is  rather  strengthened  than  weakened  by 
the  supposition  that  there  were,  in  fact,  no  infants  or  chil¬ 
dren  in  this  household;  for  a  household  generally  contains 
children,  and  a  term  so  inclusive  in  its  import  could  never 
come  into  use,  unless  it  was  the  practice  for  baptism  to  go 
by  households.  Under  a  practice  like  that  of  some  denomina¬ 
tions,  what  preacher  would  ever  be  heard  to  speak  in  this 
general  inclusive  way  of  having  baptized  a  household? 
In  the  case  of  the  jailor,  too,  the  same  reasoning  holds. 
Here,  however,  these  same  denominations  go  farther,  en¬ 
deavoring  to  show  positively,  from  the  language  used,  that 
there  were  no  infants  or  children  in  the  household;  for  when 
it  is  said  that  the  jailor  “  rejoiced,  believing  in  God  with  all 
his  house,”  it  is  argued  that,  inasmuch  as  infant  children 
are  incapable  of  believing,  there  could  have  been  no  infants 
in  the  family.  Admitting  the  correctness  of  the  transla¬ 
tion,  which  some  have  questioned,  the  argument  seems 
rather  plausible  as  a  turn  of  logic  than  just  and  convincing; 
for,  if  we  consider  the  more  decisive  position  held  in  that 
age  by  the  heads  of  families,  and  how,  in  common  speech, 
they  were  supposed  to  carry  the  religion  of  the  family  with 
them,  we  shall  be  convinced  that  nothing  was  more  natural 
than  the  very  language  here  used.  It  was  taken  for  granted, 
as  a  matter  of  common  understanding,  that,  in  a  change 
of  religion,  the  children  went  with  the  parents:  if  they  be¬ 
came  Jews,  that  their  children  would  be  Jews;  if  Christian 
believers,  that  their  children  would  be  Christians.  Hence 
all  the  terms  used,  in  reference  to  their  religion,  took  the 


32 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


most  inclusive  form.  If  one  believed  in  God,  he  believed 
with  all  his  house:  the  change  he  suffered,  in  the  common 
understanding  of  the  age,  carried  the  house  with  him; 
and  it  occurred  to  no  one  to  question  the  literal  exactness 
of  such  like  inclusive  terms. 

It  has  been  a  fashion  with  many  modern  critics  to  sur¬ 
render  both  these  passages  as  proofs  of  infant  baptism,  and 
they  certainly  do  not  prove  it  in  just  the  way  in  which 
many  have  used  them  as  proof-texts.  But  if  any  one  will 
seek  a  point  of  view,  whence  he  may  be  able  to  give  a  nat¬ 
ural  and  easy  interpretation  to  the  language  used,  or  if  he 
will  ask,  on  the  simple  doctrine  of  chances,  what  chance 
there  was  that  these  two  households  should  include  no  chil¬ 
dren,  and  moreover  what  chance  that,  in  the  only  three 
cases  of  household  baptism  mentioned  in  the  Scripture,  the 
households  should  have  been  distinguished  by  this  singu¬ 
larity,  he  will  be  as  little  likely  as  possible  to  concede  the 
fact  that  infant  baptism  is  not  adequately  proved  by  these 
passages. 

But  the  true  idea  of  these  passages,  and  also  of  the  rite 
itself,  is  seen  most  evidently  in  the  history  of  its  establish¬ 
ment  by  Christ,  in  the  third  chapter  of  John.  The  Jewish 
nation  regarded  other  nations  as  unclean.  Hence,  when  a 
Gentile  family  wished  to  become  Jewish  citizens,  they 
were  baptized  in  token  of  cleansing.  Then  they  were  said 
to  be  re-born,  or  regenerated,  so  as  to  be  accounted  true 
descendants  of  Abraham.  We  use  the  term  naturalize, 
that  is,  to  make  natural  born,  in  the  same  sense.  But  Christ 
had  come  to  set  up  a  spiritual  kingdom,  the  kingdom  of 
heaven;  and  finding  all  men  aliens,  and  spiritually  unclean, 
he  applies  over  the  rite  of  baptism,  which  was  familiar  to 
the  Jews  (“art  thou  a  Master  in  Israel,  and  knowest  not 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


33 


these  things  ?  ”),  giving  it  a  higher  sense.  “  Except  a  man  be 
born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit ,  he  can  not  enter  the  king¬ 
dom  of  heaven.”  But  the  Gentile  proselyte,  according  to 
the  custom  here  described — here  is  the  point  of  the  argu¬ 
ment — came  with  his  family.  They  were  all  baptized  to¬ 
gether,  young  and  old,  all  regenerated  or  naturalized  to¬ 
gether;  and  therefore,  in  the  new  application  made  of  the 
rite  to  signify  spiritual  cleansing  and  regeneration,  it  is  un¬ 
derstood,  of  course,  that  children  are  to  come  with  their 
parents.  To  have  excluded  them  would  have  been,  to  every 
Jewish  mind,  the  height  of  absurdity.  They  could  not  have 
been  excluded,  without  express  exception,  and  no  exception 
was  made. 

Some  have  questioned  whether  proselyte  baptism  existed 
at  this  early  age;  but  of  this  the  third  chapter  of  John  is 
itself  conclusive  proof;  for  how  else  was  baptism  familiarly 
known  to  the  Jews  as  connected  with  regeneration;  that  is, 
civil  regeneration?  There  is  always  a  historic  reason  for 
religious  rites  and  for  usages  of  language;  and  you  will  find 
it  impossible  to  suppose  that  Christ  appointed  baptism, 
and  set  the  rite  in  connection  with  spiritual  regeneration,  by 
any  mere  accident,  or  without  some  historic  basis,  answer¬ 
ing  to  that  which  I  have  just  described.  In  this  manner 
all  his  language,  in  the  interview  with  Nicodemus,  becomes 
natural  and  easy. 

It  follows  that  the  children  of  Christian  disciples,  being 
baptized  with  their  parents,  as  the  children  of  Gentile  prose¬ 
lytes  were  baptized  with  theirs,  would  be  taken  or  pre¬ 
sumed  by  the  church  to  be  spiritually  cleansed  in  the  same 
manner.  Accordingly,  just  as  the  children  of  Jews  were 
accounted  Jews,  and  not  as  unclean,  when  one  of  the  parents 
was  a  Jew,  so  Paul  tells  us  that  in  the  church  of  God  the 


34 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  j£S 


believing  party  sanctifies  the  unbelieving,  “else  were  your 
children  unclean,  but  now  are  they  holy”;  showing  that  the 
Jewish  analogies  in  regard  to  children  were  in  fact  trans¬ 
lated,  or  passed  over  to  the  church,  and  adopted  there — a 
translation  that  naturally  followed  from  the  reapplication 
of  proselyte  baptism. 

Then  passing  into  the  early  history  of  the  church,  we  hear 
Justin  Martyr  saying:  “There  are  some  of  us,  eighty  years 
old,  who  were  made  disciples  to  Christ  in  their  childhood”; 
that  is,  in  the  age  of  the  apostles,  and  while  they  were  yet 
living;  for  it  was  now  less  than  eighty  years  since  their 
death.  And  in  the  expression  “ made  disciples,”  taken  in 
connection  with  the  baptismal  formula,  “Go  disciple  all 
nations,  baptizing,”  &c.,  we  see  that  he  alludes  to  baptism; 
for  baptism  was  the  rite  that  introduced  the  subject  into 
the  Christian  school  as  a  disciple;  and  what  so  natural  as 
that  the  children  of  disciples  should  be  disciples  with  them  ? 

Then  again,  Ireneus,  who  lived  within  one  generation  of 
the  apostles,  gives  us  the  second  mention  of  this  rite  which 
appears  in  history,  when  he  says:  “Christ  came  to  save  all 
persons  through  himself;  all,  I  say,  who  through  him  are 
regenerated  unto  God:  infants  and  little  ones,  and  children 
and  youth,  and  the  aged.”  Which  phrase,  “regenerated  unto 
God,”  applied  to  parents  and  little  ones,  alludes  to  baptism; 
showing  that  a  notion  of  baptism,  as  connected  with  regen¬ 
eration,  coincident  with  that  which  we  found  in  the  third 
chapter  of  John,  was  then  current  in  the  church. 

I  have  been  thus  full  upon  the  rite  of  baptism,  not  because 
that  is  my  subject  but  because  the  rite  involves,  in  all  its 
grounds  and  reasons,  the  same  view  of  Christian  education 
which  I  am  seeking  to  establish.  One  can  not  be  thoroughly 
understood  and  received  without  the  other.  And  it  is  pre- 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


35 


cisely  on  this  account  that  we  have  so  great  difficulty  in 
sustaining  the  rite  of  infant  baptism.  It  ought  to  be  difficult 
to  sustain  any  rite,  after  the  sense  of  it  is  wholly  gone  from 
us.  You  perceive,  too,  in  this  exposition,  that  the  view  of 
Christian  nurture  I  am  endeavoring  to  vindicate  is  not 
new,  but  is  older,  by  far,  than  the  one  now  prevalent — as 
old  as  the  Christian  church.  It  is  radically  one  with  the  ^ 
ancient  doctrine  of  baptism  and  regeneration,  advanced  by 
Christ  and  accepted  by  the  first  fathers. 

We  have  much  to  say  of  baptismal  regeneration  as  a 
great  error,  which  undoubtedly  it  is,  in  the  form  in  which 
it  is  held;  but  it  is  only  a  less  hurtful  error  than  some  of 
us  hold  in  denying  it.  The  distinction  between  our  doc¬ 
trine  of  baptismal  regeneration  and  the  ancient  Scripture 
view,  is  too  broad  and  palpable  to  be  mistaken.  Ac¬ 
cording  to  the  modern  church  dogma,  no  faith  in  the  pa¬ 
rents  is  necessary  to  the  effect  of  the  rite.  Sponsors,  too, 
are  brought  in  between  all  parents  and  their  duty  to  as¬ 
sume  the  very  office  which  belongs  only  to  them.  And, 
what  is  worse,  the  child  is  said  to  be  actually  regenerated 
by  the  act  of  the  priest.  According  to  the  more  ancient 
view,  or  that  of  the  Scriptures,  nothing  depends  upon  the 
priest  or  minister  save  that  he  execute  the  rite  in  due  form. 
The  regeneration  is  not  actual,  but  only  presumptive,  and 
every  thing  depends  upon  the  organic  law  of  character  per¬ 
taining  between  the  parent  and  the  child,  the  church  and 
the  child,  thus  upon  duty  and  holy  living  and  gracious  ex¬ 
ample.  The  child  is  too  young  to  choose  the  rite  for  him-  J 
self/ but  the  parent,  having  him  as  it  were  in  his  own  life, 
is  allowed  the  confidence  that  his  own  faith  and  character 
will  be  reproduced  in  the  child,  and  grow  up  in  his  growth, 
and  that  thus  the  propriety  of  the  rite  as  a  seal  of  faith 


36 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


will  not  be  violated.  In  giving  us  this  rite,  on  the  grounds 
stated,  God  promises,  in  fact,  on  his  part,  to  dispense  that 
spiritual  grace  which  is  necessary  to  the  fulfillment  of  its 
import.  In  this  way,  too,  is  it  seen  that  the  Christian  econ¬ 
omy  has  a  place  for  persons  of  all  ages;  for  it  would  be 
singular  if,  after  all  we  say  of  the  universality  of  God’s 
mercy  as  a  gift  to  the  human  race,  it  could  yet  not  limber 
itself  to  man  so  as  to  adapt  a  place  for  the  age  of  childhood, 
but  must  leave  a  full  fourth  part  of  the  race,  the  part  least 
hardened  in  evil  and  tenderest  to  good,  unrecognized  and 
unprovided  for — gathering  a  flock  without  lambs,  or,  I 
should  rather  say,  gathering  a  flock  away  from  the  lambs. 
Such  is  not  the  spirit  of  Him  who  said:  “Forbid  them  not, 
for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven.”  Therefore  we  bring 
them  into  the  school  of  Christ  and  the  pale  of  his  mercy 
with  us,  there  to  be  trained  up  in  the  holy  nurture  of  the 
Lord.  And  then  the  result  is  to  be  tested  afterwards,  or 
at  an  advanced  period  of  life,  by  trying  their  character  in 
the  same  way  as  the  character  of  all  Christians  is  tried; 
for  many  are  baptized  in  adult  age  who  truly  do  not  believe, 
as  is  afterwards  discovered. 

But  there  are  two  objections  to  this  view  of  Christian 
nurture,  which,  if  they  are  not  removed,  may  even  suffice 
to  break  the  force  of  my  argument. 

1.  A  theoretical  objection,  that  it  leaves  no  room  for  the 
sovereignty  of  God  in  appointing  the  moral  character  of 
men  and  families.  Thus  it  is  declared  that  “all  are  not 
Israel  who  are  of  Israel,”  and  that  God,  before  the  chil¬ 
dren  Jacob  and  Esau  had  done  either  good  or  evil,  professed 
his  love  to  one  and  his  rejection  of  the  other.  But  the 
wonder  is,  in  this  case  of  Rebecca  and  her  children,  that 
such  a  mother  did  not  ruin  them  both.  A  partial  mother, 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


37 


scorning  one  child,  teaching  the  other  to  lie  and  trick  his 
blind  father  and  extort  from  a  starving  brother  his  birth¬ 
right  honor,  can  not  be  said  to  furnish  a  very  good  test  of 
the  power  of  Christian  education.  But  show  me  the  case, 
where  the  whole  conduct  of  the  parents  has  been  such  as  it 
should  be  to  produce  the  best  effects,  and  where  the  sov¬ 
ereignty  of  God  has  appointed  the  ruin  of  the  children, 
whether  all  or  any  one  of  them.  The  sovereignty  of  God 
has  always  a  relation  to  means,  and  we  are  not  authorized 
to  think  of  it,  in  any  case,  as  separated  from  means. 

2.  An  objection  from  observation — asking  why  it  is,  if 
our  doctrine  be  true,  that  many  persons,  remarkable  for 
their  piety,  have  yet  been  so  unfortunate  in  their  children  ? 
Because,  I  answer,  many  persons,  remarkable  for  their 
piety,  are  yet  very  disagreeable  persons,  and  that,  too,  by 
reason  of  some  very  marked  defect  in  their  religious  char¬ 
acter.  They  display  just  that  spirit,  and  act  in  just  that 
manner,  which  is  likely  to  make  religion  odious — the  more 
odious,  the  more  urgently  they  commend  it.  Sometimes 
they  appear  well  to  the  world  one  remove  distant  from  them, 
they  shine  well  in  their  written  biography,  but  one  living  in 
their  family  will  know  what  others  do  not;  and  if  their 
children  turn  out  badly,  will  never  be  at  a  loss  for  the  reason. 
Many  persons,  too,  have  such  defective  views  of  the  manner 
of  teaching  appropriate  to  early  childhood  that  they  really 
discourage  their  children.  “  Fathers  provoke  not  your  chil¬ 
dren  to  anger,”  says  one,  “lest  they  be  discouraged”;  im¬ 
plying  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  encouraging,  and  such  a 
thing  as  discouraging  good  principle  and  piety  in  a  child. 
And  there  are  other  ways  of  discouraging  children  besides 
provoking  them  to  an  angry  and  wounded  feeling  by  harsh 
treatment. 


38 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


I  once  took  up  a  book,  from  a  Sabbath-school  library, 
one  problem  of  which  was  to  teach  a  child  that  he  wants  a 
new  heart.  A  lovely  boy  (for  it  was  a  narrative)  was  called 
every  day  to  resolve  that  he  would  do  no  wrong  that  day, 
a  task  which  he  undertook  most  cheerfully,  at  first,  and 
even  with  a  show  of  delight.  But,  before  the  sun  went 
down,  he  was  sure  to  fall  into  some  ill-temper  or  be  over¬ 
taken  by  some  infirmity.  Whereupon  the  conclusion  was 
immediately  sprung  upon  him  that  he  “wanted  a  new 
heart.”  We  are  even  amazed  that  any  teacher  of  ordinary 
intelligence  should  not  once  have  imagined  how  she  her¬ 
self,  or  how  the  holiest  Christian  living,  would  fare  under 
such  kind  of  regimen;  how  she  would  discover  every  day, 
and  probably  some  hours  before  sunset,  that  she,  too,  wanted 
a  new  heart?  And  the  practical  cruelty  of  the  experiment 
is  yet  more  to  be  deplored  than  its  want  of  consideration. 
Had  the  problem  been  how  to  discourage  most  effectually 
every  ingenuous  struggle  of  childhood,  no  readier  or  surer 
method  could  have  been  devised. 

Simply  to  tell  a  child,  as  he  just  begins  to  make  acquain¬ 
tance  with  words,  that  he  “  must  have  a  new  heart  before 
he  can  be  good,”  is  to  inflict  a  double  discouragement. 
First,  he  can  not  guess  what  this  technical  phraseology  means, 
and  thus  he  takes  up  the  impression  that  he  can  do  or  think 
nothing  right  till  he  is  able  to  comprehend  wdiat  is  above 
his  age — why  then  should  he  make  the  endeavor?  Sec¬ 
ondly,  he  is  told  that  he  must  have  a  new  heart  before  he 
can  be  good,  not  that  he  may  hope  to  exercise  a  renewed 
spirit,  in  the  endeavor  to  be  good — why  then  attempt  what 
must  be  worthless,  till  something  previous  befalls  him  ?  Dis¬ 
couraged  thus  on  every  side,  his  tender  soul  turns  hither 
and  thither,  in  hopeless  despair,  and  finally  he  consents  to 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


39 


be  what  he  must — a  sinner  against  God,  and  that  only. 
Well  is  it,  under  such  a  process,  wearing  down  his  childish 
soul  into  soreness  and  despair  of  good,  sealing  up  his  na¬ 
ture  in  silence  and  cessation  as  regards  all  right  endeavors, 
and  compelling  him  to  turn  his  feelings  into  other  channels, 
where  he  shall  find  his  good  in  evil — well  is  it,  I  say,  if  he 
has  not  contracted  a  dislike  to  the  very  subject  of  religion, 
as  inveterate  as  the  subject  is  impossible. 

Many  teach  in  this  way,  no  doubt  with  the  best  inten¬ 
tions  imaginable;  their  design  is  only  to  be  faithful,  and 
sometimes  they  appear  even  to  think  that  the  more  they 
discourage  their  children,  the  better  and  more  faithful  they 
are.  But  the  mistake,  if  not  cruelly  meant,  is  certainly  most 
cruel  in  the  experience;  and  it  is  just  this  mistake,  I  am 
confident,  which  accounts  for  a  large  share  of  the  unhappy 
failures  made  by  Christian  parents  in  the  training  of  their 
children.  Rather  should  they  begin  with  a  kind  of  teach-  ^ 
ing  suited  to  the  age  of  the  child.  First  of  all,  they  should 
rather  seek  to  teach  a  feeling  than  a  doctrine;  to  bathe  the 
child  in  their  own  feeling  of  love  to  God  and  dependence  on  > 
him,  and  contrition  for  wrong  before  him,  bearing  up  their 
child’s  heart  in  their  own,  not  fearing  to  encourage  every 
good  motion  they  can  call  into  exercise;  to  make  what  is 
good,  happy  and  attractive;  what  is  wrong,  odious  and 
hateful;  then  as  the  understanding  advances,  to  give  it 
food  suited  to  its  capacity,  opening  upon  it  gradually  the 
more  difficult  views  of  Christian  doctrine  and  experience. 

Sometimes  Christian  parents  fail  of  success  in  the  re¬ 
ligious  training  of  their  children  because  the  church  counter¬ 
acts  their  effort  and  example.  The  church  makes  a  bad 
atmosphere  about  the  house,  and  the  poison  comes  in  at 
the  doors  and  windows.  It  is  rent  by  divisions,  burnt  up 


40 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


by  fanaticism,  frozen  by  the  chill  of  a  worldly  spirit,  petrified 
in  a  rigid  and  dead  orthodoxy.  It  makes  no  element  of 
genial  warmth  and  love  about  the  child,  according  to  the 
intention  of  Christ  in  its  appointment,  but  gives  to  religion 
rather  a  forbidding  aspect,  and  thus,  instead  of  assisting 
the  parent,  becomes  one  of  the  worst  impediments  to  his 
success.  What  kind  of  element  the  world  makes  about  the 
child  is  of  little  consequence;  for  here  there  is  no  pretence 
of  piety.  But  when  the  school  of  Christ  makes  itself  an 
element  of  sin  and  death,  the  child's  baptism  becomes  as 
great  a  fiction  as  the  church  itself,  and  the  arrangements  of 
divine  mercy  fail  of  their  intended  power.  There  are,  in 
short,  too  many  ways  of  accounting  for  the  failure  of  suc¬ 
cess  in  the  family  training  of  those  who  are  remarkable  for 
their  piety  without  being  led  to  doubt  the  correctness  of 
my  argument  in  these  discourses. 

To  sum  up  all,  we  conclude,  not  that  every  child  can  cer¬ 
tainly  be  made  to  grow  up  in  Christian  piety — nothing  is 
gained  by  asserting  so  much,  and  perhaps  I  could  not  prove 
it  to  be  true,  neither  can  any  one  prove  the  contrary — I 
merely  show  that  this  is  the  true  idea  and  aim  of  Christian 
nurture  as  a  nurture  of  the  Lord.  It  is  presumptively  true 
that  such  a  result  can  be  realized,  just  as  it  is  presumptively 
true  that  a  school  will  forward  the  pupils  in  knowledge, 
though  possibly  sometimes  it  may  fail  to  do  it.  And,  with¬ 
out  such  a  presumption,  no  parent  can  do  his  duty  and  fill 
his  office  well,  any  more  than  it  is  possible  to  make  a  good 
school,  in  the  expectation  that  the  scholars  will  learn  some¬ 
thing  five  or  ten  years  hence,  and  not  before. 

To  give  this  subject  its  practical  effect,  let  me  urge  it — 

1.  Upon  the  careful  attention  of  those  who  neglect,  or 
decline,  offering  their  children  in  baptism.  Some  of  you 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


41 


are  simply  indifferent  to  this  duty,  not  seeing  what  good  it 
can  do  to  baptize  a  child;  others  have  positive  theological 
objections  to  it.  With  the  former  class  I  certainly  agree,  so 
far  as  to  admit  that  baptism,  as  an  operation,  can  do  no 
good  to  your  child;  but,  if  it  has  no  importance  in  what 
it  operates,  it  has  the  greatest  importance  in  what  it  signifies; 
and,  what  is  more  to  be  deplored  by  you,  the  withholding 
it  signifies  as  much,  viz. :  that  you  yourselves  have  no  sense 
of  the  relation  that  subsists  between  your  character  and 
that  of  your  child,  and  as  little  of  the  mercy  that  Christ 
intends  for  your  child,  by  including  him  with  you  in  his 
fold,  to  grow  up  there  by  your  side  in  the  same  common 
hopes.  Had  you  any  just  sense  of  these  things,  you  would 
look  upon  the  baptism  of  your  child  as  a  rite  of  as  great 
importance  and  spiritual  propriety  as  your  own;  for  in 
neither  case  has  the  form  any  value  beyond  what  it  signifies. 
The  other  class  among  you  suffer  the  same  defect;  for  it  is 
\  my  settled  conviction  that  no  man  ever  objected  to  infant 
baptism  who  had  not  at  the  bottom  of  his  objections  false 
views  of  Christian  education — who  did  not  hold  a  notion  of 
individualism  in  regard  to  Christian  character  in  child¬ 
hood,  which  is  justified  neither  by  observation  nor  by  Scrip¬ 
ture. 

It  is  the  prevalence  of  false  views  on  this  subject  which 
creates  so  great  difficulty  in  sustaining  infant  baptism  in 
our  churches.  If  children  are  to  grow  up  in  sin,  to  be  con¬ 
verted  when  they  come  to  the  age  of  maturity,  if  this  is  the 
only  aim  and  expectation  of  family  nurture,  there  really  is 
no  meaning  or  dignity  whatever  in  the  rite.  They  are  even 
baptized  into  sin,  and  every  propriety  of  the  rite  as  a  seal 
of  faith  is  violated.  And  it  is  the  feeling  of  this  impropriety 
which  lies  at  the  basis  of  all  your  objections.  Returning  to 


42 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


the  old  Scripture  doctrine  of  an  organic  law,  connecting  the 
child  morally  with  the  parents,  so  that  he  is,  as  it  were, 
included  in  them,  to  grow  up  in  their  life;  perceiving,  then, 
that  he  is  a  kind  of  rudimental  being,  coming  up  gradually 
into  a  separate  and  complete  individuality,  having  the 
parental  life  extended  to  him,  first  with  an  almost  abso¬ 
lutely  controlling  power,  then  less  and  less,  till  he  takes,  at 
length,  the  helm  of  his  own  spirit — every  difficulty  that  you 
now  feel  vanishes,  and  the  rite  of  infant  baptism  becomes 
one  of  the  greatest  beauty,  and  perfectly  coincident  with 
the  spirit  and  the  rules  of  adult  baptism.  The  very  com¬ 
mand,  “  believe  and  be  baptized,”  of  which  so  much  is 
made,  is  exactly  met,  and  with  no  modifications  save  what 
are  necessary  to  suit  the  peculiar  state  and  age  of  childhood : 
for  the  child,  being  included  as  it  were  in  the  parental  life, 
is  accounted  presumptively  one  with  the  parents  and  sealed 
with  the  seal  of  their  faith. 

And  it  would  certainly  be  very  singular  if  Christ  Jesus, 
in  a  scheme  of  mercy  for  the  world,  had  found  no  place 
for  infants  and  little  children;  more  singular  still,  if  he  had 
given  them  the  place  of  adults;  and  worse  than  singular, 
if  he  had  appointed  them  to  years  of  sin  as  the  necessary 
preparation  for  his  mercy.  But  if  you  see  him  counting 
them  one  with  you,  bringing  them  tenderly  into  his  fold 
with  you,  there  to  grow  up  in  him,  you  will  not  doubt  that 
he  has  given  them  a  place  exactly  and  beautifully  suited  to 
them.  And  is  it  for  you  to  withhold  them  from  that  place? 
Is  it  worthy  of  your  tenderness,  as  a  Christian  parent,  to 
leave  them  outside  of  the  fold,  when  the  gate  is  open,  only 
taking  care  to  go  in  yourself  ?  I  will  not  accuse  you  of  in¬ 
tended  wrong,  but  I  am  quite  sure  your  thoughts  are  not 
as  God’s  thoughts,  and  I  ask  you  to  study  this  question 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


43 


again,  and  more  deeply.  You  are  giving  your  children,  as 
they  grow  up,  impressions  that  will  assuredly  be  very  in¬ 
jurious  to  them,  and  robbing  them  of  impressions  that  would 
have  great  power  and  value  to  their  minds.  What  can  be 
worse,  what  can  make  them  aliens,  more  sensibly,  from 
Christ’s  sympathies,  what  can  more  effectually  discourage 
and  chill  them  to  all  thoughts  of  a  good  life  than  to  make 
them  feel  that  Christ  has  no  place  for  them  till  their  sins 
are  ripe  and  they  are  capable  of  a  grace  that  is  now  above 
their  years?  What  more  persuasive  than  to  know  that 
he  has  taken  them  into  his  school  already,  to  grow  up  round 
him  as  disciples?  And  if  God  should  call  you  to  himself, 
what  will  draw  upon  their  hearts  more  tenderly  than  to 
remember  that  the  father  and  mother  whose  name  they 
revere,  brought  them  believingly  in  with  themselves,  to  be 
owned  in  that  general  assembly  of  the  just  which  occupies 
both  worlds,  and  become  partakers  with  them  there  in  the 
grace  which  is  now  their  song? 

You  rob  yourselves,  too,  of  an  influence  which  is  necessary 
to  a  right  fulfillment  of  your  duty.  Their  character,  you 
say,  is  their  own;  let  them  believe  for  themselves  and  be 
baptized  when  they  will.  You  have  never  the  same  genial 
feeling  that  you  would  if  you  regarded  them  as  morally 
linked  to  your  character  and  drawing  from  you  the  mold 
of  their  being.  You  are  not  kept  in  the  same  state  of  care¬ 
fulness  and  spiritual  tenderness.  *  No  matter  if  you  are  cold 
to  them,  at  times,  and  do  not  always  live  Christ  in  the 
house,  they  are  growing  up  to  be  converted,  and  almost  any 
thing  is  good  enough  for  conversion!  Christ  himself,  too, 
has  no  such  relation  to  you,  in  your  family,  as  to  make 
your  piety  a  domestic  spirit.  He  has  not  gathered  your 
children  round  you,  as  a  flock  of  young  disciples,  pouring 


44 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


all  his  tenderness  into  your  family  ties,  to  make  them 
vehicles  of  mercy  and  blessing.  Once  more  I  ask  you  to 
consider  whether  God  is  not  better  to  you  than  you  your¬ 
selves  have  thought,  and  whether,  in  withholding  your 
children  from  God,  you  are  not  like  to  fall  as  far  short  of 
your  duty  as  you  do  of  the  privilege  offered  you. 

2.  What  motives  are  laid  upon  all  Christian  parents,  by 
the  doctrine  I  have  established,  to  make  the  first  article  of 
family  discipline  a  constant  and  careful  discipline  of  them¬ 
selves.  I  would  not  undervalue  a  strong  and  decided  gov¬ 
ernment  in  families.  No  family  can  be  rightly  trained 
without  it.  But  there  is  a  kind  of  virtue,  my  brethren, 
which  is  not  in  the  rod — the  virtue,  I  mean,  of  a  truly  good 
and  sanctified  life.  And  a  reign  of  brute  force  is  much 
more  easily  maintained  than  a  reign  whose  power  is  right¬ 
eousness  and  love.  There  are,  too,  I  must  warn  you,  many 
who  talk  much  of  the  rod  as  the  orthodox  symbol  of  parental 
duty,  but  who  might  really  as  well  be  heathens  as  Chris¬ 
tians;  who  only  storm  about  their  house  with  heathenish 
ferocity,  who  lecture,  and  threaten,  and  castigate,  and 
bruise,  and  call  this  family  government.  They  even  dare 
to  speak  of  this  as  the  nurture  of  the  Lord.  So  much 
easier  is  it  to  be  violent  than  to  be  holy,  that  they  sub¬ 
stitute  force  for  goodness  and  grace,  and  are  wholly  uncon¬ 
scious  of  the  imposture.  It  is  frightful  to  think  how  they 
batter  and  bruise  the  delicate,  tender  souls  of  their  chil¬ 
dren,  extinguishing  in  them  what  they  ought  to  cultivate, 
crushing  that  sensibility  which  is  the  hope  of  their  being, 
and  all  in  the  sacred  name  of  Christ  Jesus.  By  no  such 
summary  process  can  you  dispatch  your  duties  to  your 
children.  You  are  not  to  be  a  savage  to  them,  but  a  father 
and  a  Christian.  Your  real  aim  and  study  must  be  to  in- 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


45 


fuse  into  them  a  new  life,  and,  to  this  end,  the  Life  of  God 
must  perpetually  reign  in  you.  Gathered  round  you  as  a 
family,  they  are  all  to  be  so  many  motives,  strong  as  the 
love  you  bear  them,  to  make  you  Christ-like  in  your  spirit. 
It  must  be  seen  and  felt  with  them  that  religion  is  a  first 
thing  with  you.  And  it  must  be  first,  not  in  words  and  talk, 
but  visibly  first  in  your  love — that  which  fixes  your  aims, 
feeds  your  enjoyments,  sanctifies  your  pleasures,  supports 
your  trials,  satisfies  your  wants,  contents  your  ambition, 
beautifies  and  blesses  your  character.  No  mock  piety,  no 
sanctimony  of  phrase,  or  longitude  of  face  on  Sundays  will 
suffice.  You  must  live  in  the  light  of  God,  and  hold  such  a 
spirit  in  exercise  as  you  wish  to  see  translated  into  your 
children.  You  must  take  them  into  your  feeling,  as  a 
loving  and  joyous  element,  and  beget,  if  by  the  grace  of 
God  you  may,  the  spirit  of  your  own  heart  in  theirs. 

This  is  Christian  education,  the  nurture  of  the  Lord. 
Ah,  how  dismal  is  the  contrast  of  a  half-worldly,  carnal 
piety;  proposing  money  as  the  good  thing  of  life;  stimu¬ 
lating  ambition  for  place  and  show;  provoking  ill-nature 
by  petulance  and  falsehood;  praying,  to  save  the  rule  of 
family  worship;  having  now  and  then  a  religious  fit,  and, 
when  it  is  on,  weeping  and  exhorting  the  family  to  undo  all 
that  the  life  has  taught  them  to  do;  and  then,  when  the 
passions  have  burnt  out  their  fire,  dropping  down  again  to 
sleep  in  the  embers,  only  hoping  still  that  the  family  will 
sometime  be  converted !  When  shall  we  discover  that 
families  ought  to  be  ruined  by  such  training  as  this  ?  When 
shall  we  turn  ourselves  wholly  to  God,  and  looking  on  our 
children  as  one  with  us  and  drawing  their  character  from 
us,  make  them  arguments  to  duty  and  constancy — duty 
and  constancy  not  as  a  burden,  but,  since  they  are  enforced 


43 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


N» 


y 


by  motives  so  dear,  our  pleasure  and  delight?  For  these 
ties  and  duties  exist  not  for  the  religious  good  of  our  chil¬ 
dren  only,  but  quite  as  much  for  our  own.  And  God,  who 
understands  us  well,  has  appointed  them  to  keep  us  in  a 
perpetual  frame  of  love;  for  so  ready  is  our  bad  nature  to 
kindle  with  our  good,  and  burn  with  it,  that  what  we  call 
our  piety,  is,  otherwise,  in  constant  danger  of  degenerating 
into  a  fiery,  censorious,  unmerciful,  and  intolerant  spirit. 

Hence  it  is  that  monks  have  been  so  prone  to  persecution. 
Not  dwelling  with  children  as  the  objects  of  affection, 
having  their  hearts  softened  by  no  family  love,  their  life 
identified  with  no  objects  that  excite  gentleness,  their  na¬ 
ture  hardens  into  a  Christian  abstraction,  and  blood  and 
doctrine  go  together.  Therefore  God  hath  set  Israel  in 
families,  that  the  argument  to  duty  may  come  upon  the 
gentle  side  of  your  nature,  and  fall,  as  a  baptism,  on  the 
head  of  your  natural  affections.  Your  character  is  to  be  a 
parent  character,  infolding  lovingly  the  spirits  of  your  chil¬ 
dren,  as  birds  are  gathered  in  the  nest,  there  to  be  sheltered 
and  fed,  and  got  ready  for  the  flight.  Every  hour  is  to  be 
an  hour  of  duty,  every  look  and  smile,  every  reproof  and 
care  an  effusion  of  Christian  love.  For  it  is  the  very  beauty 
of  the  work  you  have  to  do  that  you  are  to  cherish  and  en¬ 
courage  good,  and  live  a  better  life  into  the  spirits  of  your 
children. 

3.  It  is  to  be  deeply  considered,  in  connection  with  this 
view  of  family  nurture,  whether  it  does  not  meet  many  of 
the  deficiencies  we  deplore  in  the  Christian  character  of 
our  times,  and  the  present  state  of  our  churches.  We  have 
been  expecting  to  thrive  too  much  by  conquest,  and  too 
little  by  growth.  I  desire  to  speak  with  all  caution  of  what 
are  very  unfortunately  called  revivals  of  religion;  for,  apart 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


47 


from  the  name,  which  is  modern,  and  from  certain  crudities 
and  excesses  that  go  with  it — which  name,  crudities,  and 
excesses  are  wholly  adventitious  as  regards  the  substantial 
merits  of  such  scenes — apart  from  these,  I  say,  there  is 
abundant  reason  to  believe  that  God’s  spiritual  economy 
includes  varieties  of  exercise,  answering,  in  all  important 
respects,  to  these  visitations  of  mercy,  so  much  coveted 
in  our  churches.  They  are  needed.  A  perfectly  uniform 
demonstration  in  religion  is  not  possible  or  desirable.  Noth¬ 
ing  is  thus  uniform  but  death.  Our  exercise  varies  every 
year  and  day  from  childhood  onward.  Society  is  going 
through  new  modes  of  exercise  in  the  same  manner,  excited 
by  new  subjects,  running  into  new  types  of  feeling,  and 
struggling  with  new  combinations  of  thought.  Quite  as 
necessary  is  it  that  all  holy  principle  should  have  a  varied 
exercise — now  in  one  duty,  now  in  another;  now  in  public 
aims  and  efforts,  now  in  bosom  struggles;  now  in  social 
methods,  now  in  those  which  are*  solitary  and  private; 
now  in  high  emotion,  now  in  deliberative  thought  and  study. 
Accordingly  the  Christian  church  began  with  a  scene  of 
extraordinary  social  demonstration,  and  the  like,  in  one 
form  or  another,  may  be  traced  in  every  period  of  its  his¬ 
tory  since  that  day. 

But  the  difficulty  is  with  us  that  we  idolize  such  scenes, 
and  make  them  the  whole  of  our  religion.  We  assume  that 
nothing  good  is  doing,  or  can  be  done  at  any  other  time. 
And  what  is  even  worse,  we  often  look  upon  these  scenes, 
and  desire  them,  rather  as  scenes  of  victory  than  of  piety. 
They  are  the  harvest-times  of  conversion,  and  conversion 
is  too  nearly  every  thing  with  us.  In  particular  we  see  no 
way  to  gather  in  disciples  save  by  means  of  certain  marked 
experiences,  developed  in  such  scenes,  in  adult  years.  Our 


48 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


very  children  can  possibly  come  to  no  good  save  in  this 
way.  Instrumentalities  are  invented  to  compass  our  ob¬ 
ject  that  are  only  mechanical,  and  the  hope  of  mere  present 
effect  is  supposed  to  justify  them.  Present  effect,  in  the  view 
of  many,  justifies  any  thing  and  every  thing.  We  strain 
every  nerve  of  motion,  exhaust  every  capacity  of  endur¬ 
ance,  and  push  on  till  nature  sinks  in  exhaustion.  We 
'  preach  too  much,  and  live  Christ  too  little.  We  do  many 
things  which,  in  a  cooler  mood,  are  seen  to  hurt  the  dignity 
of  religion,  and  which  somewhat  shame  and  sicken  our¬ 
selves.  Hence  the  present  state  of  religion  in  our  country. 
We  have  worked  a  vein  till  it  has  run  out.  The  churches 
are  exhausted.*  There  is  little  to  attract  them,  when  they 
look  upon  the  renewal  of  scenes  through  which  many  of 
them  have  passed.  They  look  about  them,  with  a  sigh,  to 
ask  if  possibly  there  is  no  better  way,  and  some  are  ready 
to  find  that  better  way  in  a  change  of  their  religion.  Noth¬ 
ing  different  from  this  ought  to  have  been  expected.  No 
nation  can  long  thrive  by  a  spirit  of  conquest;  no  more  can 
\  a  church.  There  must  be  an  internal  growth,  that  is  made 
by  holy  industry  in  the  common  walks  of  life  and  duty. 

Let  us  turn  now,  not  away  from  revivals  of  religion,  cer¬ 
tainly  not  away  from  the  conviction  that  God  will  bring 
upon  the  churches  tides  of  spiritual  exercise,  and  vary  his 
divine  culture  by  times  and  seasons  suited  to  their  advance¬ 
ment;  but  let  us  turn  to  inquire  whether  there  is  not  a  fund 
of  increase  in  the  very  bosom  of  the  church  itself.  Let  us 
try  if  we  may  not  train  up  our  children  in  the  way  that 
they  should  go.  Simply  this,  if  we  can  do  it,  will  make  the 
church  multiply  her  numbers  many  fold  more  rapidly  than 
now,  with  the  advantage  that  many  more  will  be  gained 
*  This  was  written,  I  believe,  in  the  year,  A.  D.,  ISIS. 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


49 


from  without  than  now.  For  she  will  cease  to  hold  a  mere 
piety  of  occasions,  a  piety  whose  chief  use  is  to  get  up  oc¬ 
casions;  she  will  follow  a  gentler  and  more  constant  method, 
as  her  duty  is  more  constant  and  blends  with  the  very  life 
of  her  natural  affections.  Her  piety  will  be  of  a  more  even 
and  genial  quality,  and  will  be  more  respected.  She  will 
not  strive  and  cry,  but  she  will  live.  The  school  of  John 
the  Baptist  will  be  succeeded  by  the  school  of  Christ,  as  a 
dew  comes  after  a  fire.  Families  will  not  be  a  temptation 
to  you,  half  the  time  hurrying  you  on  to  get  money  and 
prepare  a  show,  and  the  other  half  a  motive  to  repentance 
and  shame,  and  profitless  exhortation;  but  all  the  time  an 
argument  for  Christian  love  and  holy  living. 

Then,  also,  the  piety  of  the  coming  age  will  be  deeper,  and 
more  akin  to  habit  than  ours,  because  it  began  earlier.  It 
will  have  more  of  an  air  of  naturalness,  and  will  be  less  a 
work  of  will.  A  generation  will  come  forward,  who  will 
have  been  educated  to  all  good  undertakings  and  enter¬ 
prises — ardent  without  fanaticism,  powerful  without  ma¬ 
chinery.  Not  born,  so  generally,  in  a  storm,  and  brought  to 
Christ  by  an  abrupt  transition,  the  latter  portion  of  life  will 
not  have  an  unequal  war  to  maintain  with  the  beginning, 
but  life  will  be  more  nearly  one  and  in  harmony  with  itself. 
Is  not  this  a  result  to  be  desired  ?  Could  we  tell  our  Amer¬ 
ican  churches,  at  this  moment,  what  they  want,  should  we 
not  tell  them  this  ?  Neither,  if  God,  as  many  fear,  is  about 
to  bring  upon  his  church  a  day  of  wrath  and  stormy  con¬ 
flict,  let  any  one  suspect  that  such  a  kind  of  piety  will  want 
vigor  and  nerve  to  withstand  the  fiery  assaults  anticipated. 
See  what  turn  the  mind  of  our  apostle  took  when  he  was 
arming  his  disciples  for  the  great  conflict  of  their  age.  Chil¬ 
dren,  obey  your  parents — Fathers,  provoke  not  your  chil- 


50 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


dren — Servants,  be  obedient  to  your  masters — Masters,  for¬ 
bear  threatening — Finally,  to  include  all,  put  on  the  whole 
armor  of  God.  As  if  the  first  thought,  in  arming  the  church 
for  great  trials  and  stout  victories,  was  to  fill  common  life 
and  the  relations  of  the  house  with  a  Christian  spirit.  There 
is  no  truer  truth,  or  more  sublime.  Religion  never  thor¬ 
oughly  penetrates  life,  till  it  becomes  domestic.  Like  that 
patriotic  fire  which  makes  a  nation  invincible,  it  never  burns 
with  inextinguishable  devotion  till  it  burns  at  the  hearth. 

4.  Parents  who  are  not  religious  in  their  character,  have 
reason,  in  our  subject,  seriously  to  consider  what  effect 
they  are  producing,  and  likely  to  produce,  in  their  chil¬ 
dren.  Probably  you  do  not  wish  them  to  be  irreligious;  few 
parents  have  the  hardihood  or  indiscretion  to  desire  that  the 
fear  of  God,  the  salutary  restraints  of  religion,  should  be  re¬ 
moved  from  their  children.  Possibly  you  exert  yourselves, 
in  a  degree,  to  give  them  religious  counsel  and  instruction. 
But,  alas !  how  difficult  is  it  for  you  to  convince  them,  by 
words,  of  the  value  of  what  you  practically  reject  yourselves. 
Have  I  not  shown  you  that  they  are  set  in  organic  connec¬ 
tion  with  you,  to  draw  their  spirit,  and  principles,  and  char¬ 
acter  from  yours  ?  What,  then,  are  they  daily  deriving  from 
you,  but  that  which  you  yourselves  reveal  in  your  prayer¬ 
less  house  and  at  your  thankless  table?  Is  it  a  spirit  of 
duty  and  Christian  love,  a  faith  that  has  its  home  and  rest 
in  other  worlds,  or  is  it  the  carnal  spirit  of  gain,  indifference 
to  God,  deadness  to  Christ,  love  of  the  world,  pride,  am¬ 
bition,  all  that  is  earthly,  nothing  that  is  heavenly? 

Do  not  imagine  that  you  have  done  corrupting  them  when 
they  are  born.  Their  character  is  yet  to  be  born,  and,  in 
you,  is  to  have  its  parentage.  Your  spirit  is  to  pass  into 
them,  by  a  law  of  transition  that  is  natural,  and  well  nigh 


WHAT  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  IS 


51 


irresistible.  And  then  you  are  to  meet  them  in  a  future 
life,  and  see  how  much  of  blessing  or  of  sorrow  they  will 
impute  to  you — to  share  their  unknown  future,  and  look 
upon  yourselves  as  father  and  mother  to  their  destiny. 
Such  thoughts,  I  know,  are  difficult  for  you  to  meet;  diffi¬ 
cult  because  they  open  real  scenes,  which  you  are,  one  day, 
to  look  upon.  Loving  these  your  children,  as  most  assuredly 
you  do,  can  you  think  that  you  are  fulfilling  the  office  that 
your  love  requires?  Go  home  to  your  Christless  house, 
look  upon  them  all  as  they  gather  round  you,  and  ask  it 
of  your  love  faithfully  to  say,  whether  it  is  well  between 
you?  And  if  no  other  argument  can  draw  you  to  God,  let 
these  dear  living  arguments  come  into  your  soul  and  pre¬ 
vail  there. 


Ill 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 

“The  daughter  of  my  people  is  become  cruel,  like  the  ostriches  in 
the  wilderness.” — Lamentations  iv.  3. 

I  cite  this  comparison  for  the  sake  of  the  comparison 
itself,  and  not  to  make  an  example  of  the  mothers  of  Israel 
represented  in  it.  They  are  not  to  be  blamed,  if,  in  the 
terrors  of  the  siege  and  the  wild  feverings  of  starvation,  the 
voice  of  nature  has  been  stifled  in  their  bosom.  Indeed,  it 
is  the  wonder  of  the  prophet  himself  that,  while  the  coarse 
sea-monsters  draw  out  the  breast  and  faithfully  nurse  their 
young,  the  human  mother,  so  much  tenderer  and  more 
loving,  can  be  so  maddened  by  distress  as  to  become  like  the 
ostrich,  and  forget  the  cries  of  her  children. 

The  ostrich,  it  will  be  observed,  is  nature’s  type  of  all 
unmotherhood.  She  hatches  her  young  without  incubation, 
depositing  her  eggs  in  the  sand  to  be  quickened  by  the  solar 
heat.  Her  office  as  a  mother-bird  is  there  ended.  When 
the  young  are  hatched,  they  are  to  go  forth  untended,  or 
unmothered,  save  by  the  general  motherhood  of  nature  it¬ 
self.  Hence  the  ostrich  is  called  sometimes  the  “  wicked,” 
and  sometimes  the  “stupid”  bird.  Job  describes  her  with 
a  feeling  of  natural  dislike — “Which  leaveth  her  eggs  in  the 
earth,  and  warmeth  them  in  the  dust,  and  forgetteth  that  the 
foot  may  crush  them,  or  that  the  wild  beast  may  break 
them.  She  is  hardened  against  her  young  ones,  as  though 
they  were  not  hers,  her  labor  is  in  vain  without  care  [in  our 

52 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


53 


version,  “ without  fear”].  Because  God  hath  deprived  her 
of  wisdom,  neither  hath  he  imparted  unto  her  understand¬ 
ing.”  In  other  words,  she  is  both  heartless  and  senseless; 
too  heartless  to  care  for  her  young,  and  too  senseless  to  main¬ 
tain  a  motherhood  as  genial  even  as  that  of  the  sand. 

Now  there  is  no  human  mother,  unless  it  be  in  some 
terrible  stress  of  siege  and  starvation,  when  the  mind  itself 
is  unsettled  by  the  wild  instigation  of  suffering,  who  will 
cease  from  the  bodily  care  and  feeding  of  her  children. 
And  yet  there  are  many  forms  of  nurture  for  the  mind  and 
character  of  children  that  are  so  far  resembled  to  the  ostrich 
nurture  as  to  be  fitly  represented  under  that  type.  Prac¬ 
tices  are  adopted,  opinions  accepted,  theories  of  church  life 
and  conversion  taught,  that  make  a  true  Christian  parent¬ 
age  virtually  impossible,  and  leave  the  child,  in  fact,  to  a  kind 
of  nurture  in  the  sands. 

What  I  propose,  accordingly,  at  the  present  time,  is  to 
characterize  these  modes  of  ostrich  nurture,  miscalled  Chris¬ 
tian,  showing  what  they  are,  and  the  real  though  doubtless 
undesigned  cruelty  of  them. 

As  a  curious  illustration  of  the  looseness  and  the  un¬ 
settled  feeling  of  the  times,  in  regard  to  this  great  subject, 
it  is  just  now  beginning  to  be  asserted  by  some  that  the 
true  principle  of  training  for  children  is  exactly  that  of  the 
ostrich,  viz.:  no  training  at  all;  the  best  government,  no 
government.  All  endeavors  to  fashion  them  by  the  parental 
standards,  or  to  induct  them  into  the  belief  of  their  parents, 
is  alleged  to  be  a  real  oppression  put  upon  their  natural  lib¬ 
erty.  It  is  nothing  less,  it  is  said,  than  an  effort  to  fill  them 
with  prejudices,  and  put  them  under  the  sway  of  prejudices, 
all  their  lives  long.  Why  not  let  the  child  have  his  own 
way,  think  his  own  thoughts,  generate  his  own  principles, 


54 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


and  so  be  developed  in  the  freedom  and  beauty  of  the 
flowers?  Or,  if  he  should  sometimes  fall  into  bad  tempers 
and  disgraceful  or  uncomely  practices,  as  flowers  do  not, 
let  him  learn  how  to  correct  himself  and  be  righted  by  his 
own  discoveries.  Having  thus  no  artificial  conscience  formed 
to  hamper  his  natural  freedom,  no  religious  scruples  and 
superstitions  inculcated  to  be  a  detention  or  limitation  upon 
his  impulses,  he  will  grow  up  as  a  genuine  character,  stunted 
by  no  cant  or  affectation — a  large-minded,  liberal,  original, 
and  beautiful  soul. 

This  kind  of  nurture  supposes,  evidently,  a  faith  in  human 
nature  that  is  total  and  complete.  As  the  mother  ostrich 
might  be  supposed  to  reason,  that  her  eggs  are  ostrich’s 
eggs,  and  must  therefore  produce  genuine  ostriches  and 
nothing  else,  so  it  assumes  that  human  children  will  grow 
up,  left  to  themselves,  into  the  most  genuine,  highest  style 
of  human  character.  Whereas,  it  is  the  misery  of  human 
children,  that,  as  free  beings,  answerable  for  their  choices 
and  their  character,  and  already  touched  with  evil,  they  re¬ 
quire  some  training  over  and  above  the  mere  indulgence  of 
their  natural  instincts.  They  can  not  be  left  to  merely 
blossom  into  character;  or,  if  they  are,  it  will  most  assuredly 
be  any  sort  of  character  but  that  which  parental  love  would 
desire.  What  they  most  especially  want  is,  what  no  ostrich 
or  mere  animal  nurture  can  give,  to  be  preoccupied  with 
holy  principles  and  laws;  to  have  prejudices  instilled  that 
are  holy  prejudices;  and  so  to  be  tempered  beforehand  by 
moderating  and  guiding  influences,  such  as  their  perilous 
freedom  and  hereditary  damage  require. 

The  question  here  at  issue  does  not  really  need  to  be  dis¬ 
cussed,  but  it  will  greatly  instruct  and  impress  those  parents 
who  allow  their  minds  to  fluctuate  in  such  looseness  as  quite 
unsettles  the  feeling  of  their  obligation,  just  to  notice  the 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


55 


immense  distinction  between  the  relationship  of  human 
parents  to  their  offspring  and  that  of  the  animals  to  theirs. 
It  is  not  given  to  the  animals,  they  will  perceive,  as  to  men, 
to  pass  any  results  matured  by  their  own  experience  to  their 
posterity.  They  prepare  no  inventions,  create  no  institu¬ 
tions  for  their  offspring;  produce  no  sciences,  write  no  his¬ 
tories,  preserve  no  records,  accumulate  no  property  or 
wealth  that  is  to  be  transmitted;  even  their  thoughts  they 
can  perpetuate  in  no  literary  treasures.  Hence,  there  is  no 
progress  among  them  over  and  above  that  small  physiolog¬ 
ical  improvement  that  may  pass  by  the  laws  of  natural  prop¬ 
agation.  So  far  they  are  all  ostriches.  All  they  can  do  is 
to  follow  their  instincts,  and  leave  their  posterity  to  follow 
them  over  again,  in  the  same  manner,  beginning  at  the  same 
point.  But  with  men,  as  creatures  of  reason,  it  is  far  other¬ 
wise.  They  are  creators,  all,  for  them  that  are  to  come 
after.  What  they  can  discover,  build,  produce,  acquire, 
learn,  think,  enjoy,  they  are  to  transmit;  giving  it  to  them 
that  come  after  to  begin  at  the  point  where  they  cease,  and 
have  the  full  advantage  of  their  opinions,  works,  and  char¬ 
acter.  One  of  their  first  duties,  therefore,  is  to  educate  and 
train  their  offspring,  transmitting  to  them  what  they  have 
known,  believed,  and  proved  by  their  experience.  If  they 
sometimes  transmit  their  low  thoughts,  and  narrow  opinions, 
and  mistaken  principles,  and  so  far  give  their  children  a 
great  disadvantage,  that  is  but  a  necessary  evil  which  is 
incidental  manifestly  to  a  system  otherwise  beneficent,  and 
for  that  they  are  of  course  responsible.  If  nothing  were  to 
pass  but  mere  instincts,  the  disadvantage  would  be  far 
greater,  and  the  whole  scale  of  existence  lower.  How  un¬ 
natural  and  monstrous,  therefore,  is  that  scheme  of  nur¬ 
ture  which  requires  it  of  parents  to  pass  nothing,  or  as  little 
as  possible,  to  their  children.  If  they  have  learned  wisdom, 


56 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


they  are  not  to  inculcate  that  wisdom,  lest  it  should  create 
a  prejudice !  If  they  have  found  their  conscience  and  the 
principles  of  virtue  to  be  their  truest  friends  and  the  best 
guardians  of  their  life,  they  are  not  to  hamper  their  children 
by  subjecting  them  to  the  same !  If  they  have  found  the 
principal  joys  that  freshen  life  in  God  and  the  faith  of  his 
Son,  they  are  still  to  let  their  children  find  their  own  sources 
of  strength  and  joy  for  themselves,  and  not  to  train  them,  or 
indoctrinate  them  in  such  ways  of  blessing,  lest  perchance 
they  be  not  sufficiently  original  and  free  in  their  develop¬ 
ment  !  Why,  if  they  were  to  discover  mines  and  hide  the 
discovery  forever,  or  acquire  immense  treasures  of  property 
appointing  them  by  their  will  to  be  sunk  in  the  sea,  leaving 
their  children  in  utter  destitution,  they  would  not  be  as 
false  to  their  office  of  parentage  !  God  has  given  it  to  them, 
as  rational  creatures,  to  transmit  all  possible  benefits  to  their 
offspring.  And  what  shall  they  more  carefully  transmit 
than  what  is  valuable  above  every  thing  else,  their  principles 
and  their  piety? 

We  find,  then,  a  most  solid  ground  for  the  obligations  of 
Christian  nurture.  It  is  one  of  the  grand  distinctions  of 
humanity  that  it  has  such  a  power  to  pass,  and  is  set  in  such 
a  duty  of  passing,  its  gifts,  principles,  and  virtues,  on  to 
the  ages  that  come  after.  Happily,  few  will  need  to  be  con¬ 
vinced  of  this;  and  yet  there  are  a  great  many,  we  shall 
find,  who  manage,  even  under  what  they  regard  as  truly 
Christian  pretexts,  to  maintain  schemes  of  nurture  so 
nearly  unparental  and  unnatural  as  to  have  a  much  closer 
affinity  with  the  ostrich  nurture  than  they  suspect  themselves. 

We  have  many,  for  example,  who  have  taken  up  notions 
of  liberty,  or  free  moral  agency,  in  religion  that  separate 
them  effectually  from  the  true  sense  of  their  power  and 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


57 


privilege  in  regard  to  their  children.  Assuming  the  unques¬ 
tionable  first  truth  that  religious  virtue,  or  piety,  is  a  matter 
strictly  personal,  the  free-will  offering  of  obedience  and  duty 
to  God,  they  subside  into  the  impression  that  they 'are  of 
course  absolved  from  any  close  responsibility  for  that  which 
lies  so  entirely  in  the  choices  of  their  children  themselves. 
They  may  not  take  their  absolution  by  any  formal  infer¬ 
ence,  and  may  not  even  be  aw’are  that  they  have  taken  it  at 
all;  but  the  distinction  between  manhood  and  childhood 
is  so  far  hidden,  or  slurred  over,  under  their  supposed  prin¬ 
ciple  of  responsibility  grounded  in  free  agency,  that  their 
self-indulgence  is  accommodated,  by  the  pretext,  more 
easily  than  they  know.  Sometimes  the  inference  will  be 
half  uttered  in  their  feeling;  as  when  they  ask,  only  not 
aloud — “  after  all,  must  not  our  children  answer  for  them¬ 
selves?”  So  they  submit  resignedly  to  the  supposed 
necessity,  and  do  it  with  so  much  less  of  compunction,  be¬ 
cause  they  consciously  have  so  tender  a  feeling  for  their 
children  and  are  so  much  pained  by  the  sense  of  their  re¬ 
ligious  perils.  But  the  submission  they  fall  into,  in  this 
pious  way,  amounts,  in  fact,  to  a  real  absolution,  not  sel¬ 
dom,  from  all  the  finest,  tenderest,  most  faithful,  most  un¬ 
worldly  cares  of  their  parental  office.  They  subside  thus 
into  a  habit  of  remissness  and  religious  negligence,  and  their 
way  of  nurture  becomes  unparental  even  as  that  of  the 
ostriches. 

Their  blame  in  such  defections  from  duty  is  greater  than 
they  know.  For  God  has  probably  instituted  the  repro¬ 
ductive  order  of  existence,  including  the  parental  and  filial 
relation,  with  a  special  design  to  mitigate  the  perils  of  free 
agency.  One  generation  is  to  be  ripe  in  knowledge  and 
character,  and  the  next  is  to  be  put  in  charge  of  the  former. 


58 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


in  the  tenderest,  most  flexible,  most  dependent  state  possible, 
to  be  by  them  inducted  into  the  choices  where  their  safety 
lies.  Furthermore,  they  are  bound  to  fidelity  in  their  charge 
by  the  fact  that,  as  they  have  given  existence  to  the  sub¬ 
jects  of  it,  so  they  have  also  communicated  the  poison  of 
their  own  fallen  state  to  increase  the  perils  of  existence. 
In  this  manner  God  has  put  it  upon  them  to  be  the  more 
strenuous  in  their  charge,  because  of  these  perils,  and  ex¬ 
pects,  by  means  of  their  fidelity,  to  reduce  the  otherwise 
disastrous  results  of  free  agency  to  the  smallest  possible 
measure.  Their  responsibility  in  the  parental  office  is  not 
diminished,  but  increased  even  a  hundredfold,  by  the  per¬ 
sonal  liberty  and  strict  individuality  of  their  children.  It 
would  be  far  less  cruel  to  be  negligent  of  their  bodily  wants; 
for  the  body  will  maintain  its  growth,  and  will  even  manage 
to  increase  in  robustness,  when  it  is  poorly  clad  and  fed 
upon  the  coarsest  fare.  But  the  mind,  or  soul,  born  to 
greater  perils  than  want  or  the  weather,  even  the  tremendous 
perils  of  untaught  liberty,  and  principles  unfixed,  waits,  at 
the  point  of  its  magnificent  infancy,  to  be  led  into  the 
choices,  tastes,  affinities,  and  habits  that  are  to  be  the  char¬ 
acter  of  its  eternity.  Tenderness  everywhere  else,  and 
remissness  here,  is  only  the  mockery  of  kindness.  Let  the 
first  want  be  first,  and  the  highest  nature  have  the  prompt¬ 
est  care;  and  if  any  thing  is  left  to  the  nurture  of  the  sands, 
let  it  be  the  body,  where  the  crime  of  the  desertion  will  be 
less  and  will  certainly  not  be  hid. 

Many  true  Christians,  again,  fall  off,  unwittingly,  from 
the  humanly  parental  modes  of  nurture  in  taking  up  no¬ 
tions  of  conversion  that  are  mechanical,  and  proper  only  to 
the  adult  age.  They  make  a  merit  of  great  persistency  and 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


59 


firmness  in  asserting  the  universal  necessity  of  a  new 
spiritual  birth,  not  perceiving  under  what  varieties  of  form 
that  change  may  be  wrought.  The  soul  must  be  exercised, 
they  think,  in  one  given  way,  viz. :  by  a  struggle  with  sin,  a 
conscious  self-renunciation,  and  a  true  turning  to  Christ 
for  mercy,  followed  by  the  joy  and  peace  of  a  new  life  in  the 
Spirit.  A  child,  in  other  words,  can  be  born  of  God  only  in 
the  same  way  as  an  adult  can  be.  There  is  no  quickening 
grace,  or  new  creation  of  the  Spirit,  proper  to  him  as  a  child. 
If  he  dies  in  infancy,  God  may,  it  is  true,  find  some  way, 
possibly,  to  save  him,  but  if  he  stays  among  the  living,  he 
can  not  be  a  Christian  till  he  is  older.  He  is  therefore  left, 
in  this  most  tender  and  beautiful  and  pliant  age,  in  a  con¬ 
dition  most  of  all  unprivileged,  and  most  sadly  unhopeful. 
The  necessity  of  a  great  spiritual  change  is  upon  him,  and 
yet  he  is  wholly  incapable  of  the  change!  What  other 
being  has  the  good  Lord  and  Father  of  the  world  left  in  a 
condition  as  pitiful  as  this  of  a  human  child?  Even  the 
most  wicked  and  hardened  of  men  has,  at  least,  the  gate  of 
conversion  left  open.  And  yet  there  are  many  Christian 
parents,  living  an  outwardly  decent  and  fair  life,  who  con¬ 
sent,  without  difficulty  and  with  a  kind  of  consciously 
orthodox  merit,  to  this  very  unnatural  and  truly  hard  lot  of 
childhood  and  fall  into  easy  conformity  with  it.  Their 
practically  accepted  notion  of  Christian  nurture,  in  which 
they  mean  to  be  piously  faithful,  is  that  they  are  to  bring 
up  their  children  outside  of  all  possible  acceptance  with 
God  till  such  time  as  their  conversion  may  be  looked  for  in  , 
a  church-wise  form.  And  their  whole  scheme  of  treatment 
corresponds.  They  indoctrinate  them  soundly  in  respect 
to  their  need  of  a  new  heart;  tell  them  what  conversion  is, 
and  how  it  comes  to  pass  with  grown  people;  pray  that 


60 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


God  will  arrest  them  when  they  are  old  enough  to  be  con¬ 
verted  according  to  the  manner;  drill  them,  meantime,  into 
all  the  constraints,  separated  from  all  the  hopes  and  liberties 
of  religion;  turning  all  their  little  misdoings  and  bad  tempers 
into  evidences  of  their  need  of  regeneration,  and  assuring 
them  that  all  such  signs  must  be  upon  them  till  after  they 
have  passed  the  change.  Their  nurture  is  a  nurture,  thus, 
of  despair;  and  the  bread  of  life  itself,  held  before  them  as  a 
fruit  to  be  looked  upon,  but  not  tasted,  till  they  are  old 
enough  to  have  it  as  grown  people  do,  finally  becomes  re¬ 
pulsive,  just  because  they  have  been  so  long  repelled  and 
fenced  away  from  it.  And  so  religion  itself,  pressed  down 
upon  them  till  they  are  fatally  sored  by  its  impossible  claims, 
becomes  their  fixed  aversion.  How  plain  is  it  that  such 
kind  of  nurture  is  unnatural  and,  though  it  be  not  so  in¬ 
tended,  unchristian.  It  makes  even  the  loving  gospel  of 
Jesus  a  most  galling  chain  upon  the  neck  of  childhood ! — 
this  and  nothing  more.  For  so  long  a  time,  and  that  the 
most  ductile  and  hopeful,  as  regards  all  new  implantings  of 
good,  it  really  proposes  nothing  but  to  have  the  depravated 
nature  grow,  and  the  plague  of  sin  deepen  its  bad  infection. 

Meantime,  it  will  be  strange  if  the  parents  themselves  do 
not  fall  away  from  all  that  is  necessary  to  their  Christian 
power,  when  the  conversion  of  their  children  is  postponed, 
in  this  manner,  by  the  merely  adult  possibilities  of  their 
gospel.  Why  should  they  live  so  as  to  gain  their  children, 
when  their  children  are  not  to  be  gained  ?  Were  they  really 
to  live  so  as  to  make  their  house  an  element  of  grace,  the 
atmosphere  of  their  life  an  element,  to  all  that  breathe  it, 
of  unworldly  feeling  and  all  godly  aspiration,  their  me¬ 
chanical  doctrine  of  conversion  would  scarcely  suffice  to 
keep  away  the  saving  mercies  of  God  from  their  children. 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


61 


Their  children  would  still  be  converted  even  before  the  per¬ 
missible  time,  and  burst  up  through  the  poor  detentions  of 
their  bad  doctrine,  to  cover  it  with  blessed  confusion.  But 
alas !  it  requires  but  a  very  little  of  genuine,  living  godli¬ 
ness  in  the  house  to  bring  up  children  for  a  future  conver¬ 
sion  !  This  kind  of  ostrich  nurture  can  be  cheaply  main¬ 
tained,  and  with  a  very  small  expenditure  of  piety.  To 
keep  the  drill  on  foot,  as  a  mere  legal  indoctrination;  to 
phrase  a  hope  or  desire  of  conversion  in  the  family  prayers; 
to  be  exact,  stern,  stiff  in  all  church  practices,  requires  no 
faith;  or,  living  by  faith,  no  sanctification  of  the  life.  A 
busy,  worldly,  hard-natured  father,  a  vain,  irritable,  cap¬ 
tious,  fashion-loving  mother,  a  house  orthodoxly  bad  and 
earthly  in  all  the  reigning  practices,  is  yet  a  good  enough 
school  to  prepare  the  necessity  of  a  future  conversion  for 
the  children  I  How  different  the  kind  of  life  that  is  neces¬ 
sary  to  bring  them  up  in  conversion  and  beget  them  anew 
in  the  spirit  of  a  loving  obedience  to  God,  at  a  point  even 
prior  to  all  definite  recollection.  This  is  Christian  nurture, 
because  it  nurtures  Christians  and  because  it  makes  an 
element  of  Christian  grace  in  the  house.  It  invites,  it 
nourishes  hope,  it  breathes  in  love,  it  forms  the  new  life  as 
a  holy,  though  beautiful  prejudice  in  the  soul,  before  its 
opening  and  full  flowering  of  intelligence  arrives.  “Suffer 
little  children  to  come  unto  me  and  forbid  them  not”  trans¬ 
lates  the  very  economy  of  the  house,  and  has,  in  that  econ¬ 
omy,  its  living  verification.  And  the  promise,  “for  of 
such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven,”  wears  no  look  of  violence; 
for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  there.  The  children  grow 
up  in  it,  as  being  configured  to  it.  The  family  prayers  have 
a  sound  of  gladness,  and  they  sing  the  family  hymn  with 
glad  voices.  The  worldliness  of  the  glittering  bad  world 


62 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


without  is  set  off  and  made  fascinating  by  no  doom  of  re¬ 
pression  within.  A  firm  administration  is  loved  because, 
like  God’s,  it  is  felt  to  be  the  defense  of  liberty.  Truth, 
purity,  firmness,  love  to  Jesus,  all  that  belongs  to  a  formal 
conversion  and  more,  is  centralized  thus  in  the  soul,  as  a 
kind  of  ingrown  habit.  The  children  are  all  converted  by 
the  converting  element  of  grace  they  live  in.  And  so  it  is 
proved  that  there  is  a  conversion  for  children,  proper  and 
possible  to  their  age.  They  are  not  excluded,  walled  away 
from  Christ  by  a  mechanical  enforcement  of  modes  proper 
only  and  possible  to  adults.  The  house  itself  is  a  convert¬ 
ing  ordinance. 

Again  there  is  another  and  different  way  in  which  parents, 
meaning  to  be  Christian,  fall  into  the  ostrich  nurture  with¬ 
out  being  at  all  aware  of  it.  They  believe  in  what  are  called 
revivals  of  religion,  and  have  a  great  opinion  of  them  as 
being,  in  a  very  special  sense,  the  converting  times  of  the 
gospel.  They  bring  up  their  children,  therefore,  not  for 
conversion  exactly,  but,  what  is  less  dogmatic  and  formal, 
for  the  converting  times.  And  this  they  think  is  even  more 
evangelical  and  spiritual  because  it  is  more  practical;  though, 
in  fact,  much  looser  and  connected,  commonly,  with  even 
greater  defections  from  parental  duty  and  fidelity.  To 
bring  up  a  family  for  revivals  of  religion  requires,  alas  I 
about  the  smallest  possible  amount  of  consistency  and  Chris¬ 
tian  assiduity.  No  matter  what  opinion  may  be  held  of 
such  times,  or  of  their  inherent  value  and  propriety  as  per¬ 
taining  to  the  genuine  economy  of  the  gospel,  any  one  can 
see  that  Christian  parents  may  very  easily  roll  off  a  great 
part  of  their  responsibilities,  and  comfort  themselves  in 
utter  vanity  and  worldliness  of  life,  by  just  holding  it  as  a 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


63 


principal  hope  for  their  children  that  they  are  to  be  finally 
taken  up  and  rescued  from  sin  by  revivals  of  religion.  As 
it  costs  much  to  be  steadily  and  uniformly  spiritual,  how 
agreeable  the  hope  that  gales  of  the  Spirit  will  come  to  make 
amends  for  their  conscious  defections.  If  they  do  not 
maintain  the  unworldly  and  heavenly  spirit,  so  as  to  make 
it  the  element  of  life  in  their  house,  God  will  some  time  have 
his  day  of  power  in  the  community,  and  they  piously  hope 
that  their  children  will  then  be  converted  to  Christ.  So 
they  fall  into  a  key  of  expectation  that  permits,  for  the  pres¬ 
ent,  modes  of  life  and  conduct  which  they  can  not  quite 
approve.  They  go  after  the  world  with  an  eagerness  which 
they  expect  by  and  by  to  check,  or  possibly,  for  the  time,  to 
repent  of.  The  family  prayers  grow  cold  and  formal,  and 
are  often  intermitted.  The  tempers  are  earthly,  coarse, 
violent.  Discipline  is  ministered  in  anger,  not  in  love. 
The  children  are  lectured,  scolded,  scorched  by  fiery  words. 
The  plans  are  all  for  money,  show,  position;  not  for  the 
more  sacred  and  higher  interests  of  character.  The  con¬ 
versation  is  uncharitable,  harsh,  malignant,  an  effusion  of 
spleen,  a  tirade,  a  taking  down  of  supposed  worth  and 
character  by  low  imputations  and  carping  criticisms.  In 
this  kind  of  element  the  children  are  to  have  their  growth 
and  nurture,  but  the  parents  piously  hope  that  there  will 
some  time  be  a  revival  of  religion,  and  that  so  God  will 
mercifully  make  up  what  they  conceive  to  be  only  the 
natural  infirmity  of  their  lives.  Finally  the  hoped  for  day 
arrives,  and  there  begins  to  be  a  remarkable  and  strange 
piety  in  the  house.  The  father  chokes  almost  in  his  prayer, 
showing  that  he  really  prays  with  a  meaning  !  The  mother, 
conscious  that  things  have  not  been  going  rightly  with  the 
children,  and  seeing  many  frightful  signs  of  their  certain 


64 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


ruin  at  hand,  warns  them,  even  weeping,  of  the  impending 
dangers  by  which  she  is  so  greatly  distressed  on  their  ac¬ 
count;  adding  also  bitter  confessions  of  fault  in  herself. 
The  children  stare,  of  course,  not  knowing  what  strange 
thing  has  come !  They  can  not  be  unaffected ;  perhaps  they 
seem  to  be  converted,  perhaps  not.  In  many  cases  it  makes 
little  difference  which;  for  if  all  this  new  piety  in  the  house 
is  to  burn  out  in  a  few  days,  and  the  old  regimen  of  worldli¬ 
ness  and  sin  to  return,  it  will  be  wonderful  if  they  are  not 
converted  back  again  to  be  only  just  as  neglectful  in  the 
matter  of  Christian  living  as  they  were  brought  up  to  be. 
Any  scheme  of  nurture  that  brings  up  children  thus  for  re¬ 
vivals  of  religion  is  a  virtual  abuse  and  cruelty.  And  it  is 
none  the  less  cruel  that  some  pious-looking  pretexts  are 
cunningly  blended  with  it.  Instead  of  that  steady,  forma¬ 
tive,  new-creating  power  that  ought  to  be  exerted  by  holi¬ 
ness  in  the  house,  it  looks  to  campaigns  of  force  that  really 
dispense  with  holiness,  and  it  results  that  all  the  best  ends 
of  Christian  nurture  are  practically  lost. 

Again,  there  is  another  form  of  the  unchristian  nurture, 
over  opposite  to  these  just  named,  which  is  quite  as  wide 
of  the  true  character.  I  speak  of  that  lower  and  merely 
ethical  nurture,  which  undertakes,  with  great  assiduity  it 
may  be,  to  form  and  whittle  the  age  of  childhood  into  char¬ 
acter  by  a  merely  pruning  and  humanly  culturing  process. 
It  is  a  kind  of  nurture  that  stops  short  of  religion  and  atones 
for  the  conscious  defect  by  a  drill  more  or  less  careful  in  the 
moralities.  The  reason  of  this  defect  commonly  is  that  the 
parents  are  too  far  decayed  in  piety,  and  too  much  under 
the  world,  to  put  forth  any  really  religious  endeavor;  but 
it  is  to  their  children  as  if  no  such  interest  of  religion  had 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


65 


existence.  They  are  corrected  on  this  side  and  on  that,  by 
human  standards  and  methods,  taught  to  consider  what  is 
respectable  or  what  people  will  think  of  them,  how  to  win 
the  honors  of  character  among  men,  lectured  on  the  wisdom 
of  conduct  and  the  resulting  happiness  of  a  right  behavior, 
but  the  fact  of  their  relation  to  God  and  the  standards  and 
motives  furnished  by  religion  are  wholly  passed  by,  or 
omitted.  The  cruelty  of  this  sort  of  nurture  is  that,  however 
delicate  and  careful  it  may  be  of  that  which  lies  in  mere 
social  character  and  standing,  it  exactly  copies  the  ostrich 
nurture  in  all  that  relates  to  the  higher  and  properly  relig¬ 
ious  life.  The  world-ward  nature  is  cared  for,  but  the  re¬ 
ligious,  that  which  opens  God-ward,  that  which  aspires 
after  God  and,  occupied  by  his  inspiring  impulse,  mounts 
into  all  good  character — as  being  even  liberty  itself — that 
which  consummates  and  crowns  the  real  greatness  and 
future  eternity  of  souls,  is  virtually  ignored,  left  to  the  wild, 
dry  motherhood  of  the  sands. 

Children  trained  in  this  mere  ethical  nurture  are  inducted 
into  no  way  of  faith  or  dependence  on  God.  They  are 
taught  to  look  for  no  spiritual  transformation.  The  virtue 
they  practice  is  to  be  prayerless  virtue.  They  grow  up  thus 
on  the  roots  of  their  natural  pride  and  selfishness,  bred  into 
the  habit  of  testing  their  goodness  by  their  appearances, 
and  their  merit  by  their  works.  That  they  should  be  molded 
in  this  manner  to  a  Christian  life  would  be  wonderful. 
Their  parents  may  be  nominally  Christian,  but  they  have, 
in  fact,  agreed  to  omit  religion  in  the  training  of  their  chil¬ 
dren;  and  it  would  be  strange  if  they  should  compliment 
their  only  nominally  Christian  parentage  by  unfolding  a 
really  Christian  life.  It  will  be  well  if  they  have  any  genu¬ 
ine  respect  for  religion,  or  even  senst  of  what  it  is.  Trained 


66 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


to  have  no  religious  conscience  and  to  practice  a  virtue 
unblessed  by  the  nobler  impulsions  of  religious  inspiration, 
it  will  be  strange  if  they  maintain  even  correctness  of  life; 
and  more  so  if  their  heart,  undeveloped  by  religion,  does 
not  canker  itself  away  in  the  sordid  vices  of  meanness,  or 
burn  itself  out,  as  regards  all  worthy  and  great  feelings,  in 
the  general  hatred  of  God  and  his  truth.  There  may  be 
many  decencies,  or  even  delicacies,  in  this  kind  of  nurture; 
and  yet,  in  the  complete  oversight  or  neglect  of  the  religious 
nature,  it  becomes  profoundly  and  even  cruelly  unnatural. 

There  is  yet  another  and  widely  prevalent  misconception 
of  childhood  which,  to  a  certain  extent,  involves  Christian¬ 
ity  itself  in  the  same  unnatural  methods  that  are  adopted 
by  men.  I  speak  here  more  especially  of  the  assumed  fact 
that  Christ  allows  no  place  in  the  church  for  such  as  are  only 
children.  Is  not  the  church  to  be  composed  of  such  as  really 
believe  ?  And  what  kind  of  faith  can  children  have  who  are 
not  yet  arrived  at  the  age  of  intelligence?  Hence  there  is 
supposed  to  be  a  kind  of  necessity  that  children,  up  to  that 
period  of  advancement  and  personal  maturity  when  they  are 
able  to  choose  and  believe  for  themselves,  and  become  the 
subjects  of  a  genuine  Christian  experience,  should  be  ex¬ 
cluded  from  the  Christian  church.  It  signifies  nothing  that 
the  seal  of  faith  was  anciently  applied  to  children  only 
eight  days  old,  as  being  presumptively  in  the  faith  of  their 
parents  and  included  with  them  in  the  bonds  of  their  cove¬ 
nant.  As  little  does  it  signify  that  Christ  says:  “Let  them 
come,  forbid  them  not;  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven.” 
Still  they  can  not  believe — are  not  old  enough  to  believe — 
how,  then,  can  they  come  into  the  church,  or  in  any  conceiv¬ 
able  way  be  included  7n  it?  Is  not  the  church  of  God  as- 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


67 


sumed  to  be  made  up  of  them  that  believe  ?  What,  then,  is 
left  for  children  but  to  stay  without  till  they  are  old  enough 
to  be  intelligently  converted  and  entered  into  a  new  life  by 
their  own  deliberate  choice? 

The  result  of  such  arguments  and  inferences  is  that  chil¬ 
dren  have  no  place  given  them  in  the  church,  however 
modified,  to  suit  the  conditions  of  their  age.  Their  parents 
are  called  by  Christ  to  live  within  and  they  themselves  are 
left  without.  There  is  no  church  nurture  for  them  proper 
to  their  tender  years;  they  can  not  be  in  the  church  till 
they  are  sufficiently  grown  to  believe.  And  so  it  is  settled 
that  there  is  no  church  mercy  for  them.  The  church  turns 
her  back  and  leaves  them,  separated  even  from  their  parents, 
to  try  their  fortunes,  like  the  wild  ostriches,  in  the  desert 
sands  without. 

It  would  seem  that  the  hardness  and  the  monstrous  un¬ 
naturalness  of  such  conceptions  must  revolt  the  mind  of 
almost  any  thoughtful  person.  If  the  grace  of  our  salvation 
took  the  ingenuous  children  away  from  their  sinning,  unbe¬ 
lieving  parents,  and  gathered  them  into  the  heavenly  fold 
by  themselves,  we  should  have  less  reason  to  be  shocked  by 
the  severity.  But  instead  of  this,  calling  home  the  penitent 
fathers  and  mothers  and  carefully  folding  them  in  the 
church  of  God’s  protection,  Jesus  their  shepherd  shuts  away 
the  lambs,  we  are  told,  and  forbids  them  to  come  in !  The 
cruelty  of  such  an  opinion,  or  doctrine,  is  evident,  and  the 
cruel  effects  it  must  have,  in  making  even  childhood  feel 
itself  to  be  an  alien  from  God’s  mercies,  are  even  more  so. 
It  has  no  conception  that  there  can  be  a  Saviour  and  salva¬ 
tion  for  all  ages  and  stages  of  life;  Christ  is  the  Saviour  of 
adults  only !  No !  Christ  is  a  Saviour  bounded  by  no  such 
narrow  and  meager  theories — a  Saviour  for  infants,  and 


68 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


children,  and  youth,  as  truly  as  for  the  adult  age;  gathering 
them  all  into  his  fold  together,  there  to  be  kept  and  nour¬ 
ished  together,  by  gifts  appropriate  to  their  years;  even  as 
he  himself  has  shown  us  so  convincingly,  by  passing  through 
all  ages  and  stages  of  life  himself,  and  giving  us,  in  that 
manner,  to  see  that  he  partakes  the  want  and  joins  himself 
to  the  fallen  state  of  each.  Having  been  a  child  himself, 
who  can  imagine,  even  for  one  moment,  that  he  has  no 
place  in  his  fold  for  the  fit  reception  of  childhood  ?  Dread¬ 
ful  insult,  both  to  him  and  to  childhood,  and  the  greater 
insult,  that  the  gospel  even  of  heaven’s  love  is  narrowed  to 
this,  by  a  supposed  necessity  of  evangelism !  What  a  posi¬ 
tion  is  given  thus  to  children  growing  up  to  look  on  an  adult 
church,  instructed  into  the  opinion  that  what  they  look 
upon — Christ,  ordinances,  covenant  vows — is  only  for  adult 
people ! 

I  ought  perhaps  to  add,  in  bringing  this  argument  to  a 
close,  that  the  harsh  imputations  I  may  seem  to  some  of 
you  to  have  indulged,  must  not  be  hastily  disallowed.  Al¬ 
most  all  parents  are  tender,  consciously  tender  of  their 
children.  What  will  not  most  of  you  do  to  clothe,  and  feed, 
and  educate,  and,  in  all  respects,  make  due  provision  for 
your  children?  Sacrifices  here  are  nothing.  Health,  rest, 
ease,  comfort,  you  gladly  renounce  for  their  sake,  and  some 
of  you  would  not  spare  the  sacrifice  even  of  your  soul  to 
serve  them.  Are  you,  then,  to  be  justly  charged  with  a 
mode  of  nurture  so  unnatural  as  to  be  fitly  resembled  to 
that  of  the  ostriches?  Of  what  are  you  more  deeply  con¬ 
scious  than  of  your  willingness  even  to  die  for  your  chil¬ 
dren?  All  your  tenderest  movings  are  toward  them,  all 
that  you  plan,  or  think,  or  do,  is  for  them.  Yes,  doubt- 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


69 


less,  it  is  even  so,  as  regards  their  nurture  and  comfort  in 
this  world — all  your  tenderest  cares  and  studies  center  here. 
Of  this  there  is  no  question,  and  far  be  it  from  me  to  sug¬ 
gest  a  doubt  of  you  here. 

No,  this  defection  from  nature,  of  which  I  have  been 
speaking,  relates  to  a  different  matter — in  quite  another 
field.  Doing  you  full  honor  as  a  careful  provider,  a  most 
faithful  and  loving  guardian,  a  disinterested,  self-sacrificing 
contriver  and  laborer  for  your  children’s  good,  the  question 
is  whether  you  do  not  after  all  put  them  off  with  a  mere 
ostrich  nurture  in  the  matter  of  the  soul  ?  whether  you  do 
not  let  in  some  one  or  more  of  these  very  misconceptions  I 
have  named  to  control  all  your  modes  of  conduct  and  dis¬ 
cipline  toward  them?  Do  you  never  throw  off  your  own 
Christian  responsibilities  for  them  by  allowing,  as  a  pretext, 
the  fact  of  their  liberty  and  personal  responsibility  for 
themselves?  Are  you  never  let  down  in  the  sense  of  your 
most  sacred  obligations,  by  simply  allowing  yourself  to 
think  it  enough  that  your  children  are  brought  up  for  con¬ 
version?  Do  none  of  you  subside  even  to  a  lower  point, 
and  bring  up  your  children  only  for  revivals  of  religion? 
Are  there  none  of  you  that  make  it  your  whole  care  to  form 
your  children  by  the  mere  ethical  standards,  and  finish  them 
in  the  graces  of  a  mere  human  culture  ?  Have  none  of  you 
theories  of  salvation  and  of  Christ’s  way  respecting  it,  such 
as  leave  no  place  for  children  in  the  church,  however  quali¬ 
fied  to  meet  their  age  ?  Little  now  does  it  signify  that  you 
love  your  children,  or  do  even  slave  both  body  and  mind 
to  get  a  footing  of  society  and  comfort  for  them  in  this  life 
— even  beavers  and  bears  will  do  as  much  as  that.  In  giving 
existence  to  your  child  you  have  set  him  forth  into  perils 
that  include  his  immortality,  and  you  have  therefore  no  right 


70 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


to  handle  him  neglectfully  in  this  great  concern.  On  the 
contrary,  you  are  to  accept  his  immortality,  and  in  a  seriously 
Christian  sense  take  it  on  yourself  as  being  in  Christ’s 
name  responsible  for  it;  responsible,  that  is,  for  making  your 
house  itself  such  an  element  of  piety,  love,  faith,  unworldly 
and  beautiful  living,  that  your  children  shall  grow  up  in  it 
as  in  the  nurture  of  the  Lord.  Take  no  credit  to  your¬ 
selves  for  any  thing  which  falls  short  of  this.  You  may  be 
very  tender  in  what  falls  short,  but  it  is  no  Christian  tender¬ 
ness.  You  can  not  live  in  a  worldly  house,  you  can  not 
make  yourself  a  family  drudge  to  serve  a  mere  family  am¬ 
bition,  can  not  piously  hope  that  God  will  somehow  convert 
your  children  after  they  have  got  by  you  and  become  adults, 
without  being  justly  chargeable  with  giving  their  souls  a 
mere  nurture  of  the  sands,  in  which  the  genuine  Christian 
grace  has  no  part  whatever.  And  be  not  surprised  if  these 
children,  when  they  meet  you  before  the  Judge  of  your  and 
their  life,  have  a  more  severe  witness  to  give  against  you 
than  if  you  had  merely  neglected  their  bodies. 

Probably  enough  there  may  be  some  of  you  that,  without 
being  Christians  yourselves,  are  yet  careful  to  teach  your 
children  all  the  saving  truths  of  religion,  and  wTho  thus  may 
take  it  as  undue  severity  to  be  charged  with  only  giving 
your  children  this  unnatural,  ostrich  nurture  of  which  I  have 
spoken.  But  how  poor  a  teacher  of  Christ  is  any  one  who 
is  not  in  the  light  of  Christ,  and  does  not  know  the  inward 
power  of  his  truth  as  a  gospel  of  life  to  the  soul.  You  press 
your  child,  in  this  manner,  with  duties  you  do  not  practice, 
and  promises  you  do  not  embrace,  and  if  you  do  not  succeed, 
it  only  means  that  you  can  not  impose  on  him  to  that  high 
extent.  A  mother  teaches  by  words  only?  No  !  but  more, 
a  great  deal  more,  by  the  atmosphere  of  love  and  patience 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


71 


she  breathes.  Besides,  how  easy  is  it  for  her  to  make  every 
thing  she  teaches  legal  and  repulsive,  just  because  she  has 
no  liberty  or  joy  in  it  herself.  What  is  wanted,  therefore,  is 
not  merely  to  give  a  child  the  law,  telling  him  this  is  duty, 
this  is  right,  this  God  requires,  this  he  will  punish;  but  a 
much  greater  want  is  to  have  the  spirit  of  all  duty  lived  and 
breathed  around  him;  to  see,  and  feel,  and  breathe,  himself, 
the  living  atmosphere  of  grace.  Therefore  it  is  vain,  let  all 
parents  so  understand,  to  imagine  that  you  can  really  fulfill 
the  true  fatherhood  and  motherhood,  unless  you  are  true 
Christians  yourselves.  I  am  sorry  to  discourage  you  in 
any  good  attempts.  Rightly  taken,  what  I  say  will  not  dis¬ 
courage  you,  but  will  only  prompt  you,  by  all  that  is  dearest 
to  you  on  earth,  to  become  truly  qualified  for  your  office. 
By  these  dear  pledges  God  has  given  you,  to  call  you  to 
himself,  I  beseech  you  turn  yourselves  to  the  true  life  of  re¬ 
ligion.  Have  it  first  in  yourselves,  then  teach  it  as  you  , 
live  it;  teach  it  by  living  it;  for  you  can  do  it  in  no  other 
manner.  Be  Christians  yourselves,  and  then  it  will  not  be  \ 
difficult  for  you  to  do  your  true  duties  to  your  children. 
Until  then  it  is  really  impossible. 

I  have  only  to  add  in  the  conclusion  of  this  subject — 
just  what  is  made  plain  by  it — that  there  is  really  no  great 
wonder,  in  the  fact  often  spoken  of  as  a  subject  of  wonder, 
that  Christian  parents  are  so  frequently  disappointed  in 
their  children.  Why  is  it  that  such  correct  and  apparently 
Christian  people  see  their  children  grow  up  unaffected  by 
religion,  or  even  hostile  to  its  sacred  claims,  falling  possibly 
into  a  character  of  vice  and  complete  moral  abandonment? 
The  answer  is,  alas  !  too  easy.  I  will  not  say  that,  in  every 
case,  the  result  accuses  them  of  crime;  it  may  be  the  effect 
sometimes  of  their  mistaken,  or  faulty,  conceptions  of  pa- 


72 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


rental  duty.  But  no  one,  it  seems  j;o  me,  can  once  distin¬ 
guish  these  bad  faults  of  nurture  and  note  the  very  wide 
prevalence  they  have  in  the  Christian  homes,  without  even 
expecting  worse  and  more  fatal  results  of  mischief  than 
actually  appear.  Sometimes  it  seems  to  be  imagined  that 
nothing  but  some  dark  hindrance  of  divine  sovereignty  can 
account  for  such  results.  The  less  we  have  to  say  in  that 
strain  the  wiser  we  shall  be,  and  as  much  less  irreverent  to 
God.  No,  there  is  reason  enough  for  all  such  miscarriages 
without  charging  them  to  God.  I  could  not  express  myself 
as  the  truth  requires,  my  brethren,  if  I  did  not  say  that 
when  I  observe  the  wide-spread  delusions  of  nominally 
Christian  parents,  their  false  aims,  their  worldly  pretexts, 
their  habitual  separation  from  any  living  faith  in  God,  in 
the  ends,  plans,  practices,  and  spirit  of  their  administration, 
I  rather  wonder  that  results  a  great  deal  worse  do  not  appear. 
It  would  even  be  a  fit  subject  of  wonder,  if  children  trained 
in  this  manner,  should  not  turn  out  badly.  If,  indeed,  they 
are  so  much  as  converted  afterwards,  saying  nothing  of  their 
growing  up  in  a  sanctified  character,  it  is  well — more  than 
could  be  rightly  expected. 

No,  my  friends,  these  mistaken  modes  of  nurture  ought 
not  to  make  Christians;  they  must  even  falsify  their  own 
nature  to  do  it.  Let  us  be  just  to  God,  and  lay  our  griefs 
no  longer  to  his  charge.  If  we  can  not  come  into  his  way  in 
the  training  of  our  families,  let  us  not  complain  that  we  do 
not  succeed  in  ways  of  our  own.  After  all,  there  is  no  cheap 
way  of  making  Christians  of  our  children.  Nothing  but  to 
practically  live  for  it  makes  it  sure.  To  be  Christians  our¬ 
selves — ah !  there  is  the  difficulty,  /  How  can  an  unchris¬ 
tian,  or  only  non-christian,  spirit  reigning  in  the  house, 
quicken  the  spirit  of  life  and  holiness  in  the  hearts  subjected 


THE  OSTRICH  NURTURE 


73 


to  its  sway  ?  Even  if  ourj^lse  modes  of  nurture  are  mistakes, 
who  can  expect  that  mistakes  will  be  as  good  as  verities? 
O,  thou,  blessed  Son  of  God,  advocate  and  friend  of  the  lit¬ 
tle  ones,  rid  us  of  our  falsities,  and  set  us  in  thy  own  true 
spirit,  that  we  may  fitly  discharge  these  most  sacred  and 
tenderest  duties ! 


IV 


THE  ORGANIC  UNITY  OF  THE  FAMILY 

“The  children  gather  wood,  and  the  fathers  kindle  the  fire,  and  the 
women  knead  dough,  to  make  cakes  to  the  queen  of  heaven,  and  to 
pour  out  drink  offerings  unto  other  gods,  that  they  may  provoke  me  to 
anger.” — Jeremiah  vii.  18. 

In  this  lively  picture  you  have  the  illustration  of  a  great 
and  momentous  truth — the  Organic  Unity  of  the  Family. 
If  it  be  an  idolatrous  family,  worshipers  of  the  moon,  for 
example,  such  is  the  organic  relation  of  the  members  that 
they  are  all  involved  together,  and  the  idol  worship  is  the 
common  act  of  the  house.  The  children  gather  wood,  the 
fathers  kindle  the  fire,  the  women  prepare  the  cakes  for  an 
offering,  and  the  queen  of  heaven  receives  it,  as  one  that  is 
the  joint  product  of  the  whole  family.  The  worship  is 
family  worship;  the  god  of  one  is  the  god  of  all;  the  spirit 
of  one,  the  spirit  of  all. 

And  so  it  is  with  all  family  transactions  and  feelings. 
They  implicate  ordinarily  the  whole  circle  of  the  house, 
young  and  old,  male  and  female,  fathers  and  mothers,  sons 
and  daughters.  Acting  thus  together,  they  take  a  common 
character,  accept  the  same  delusions,  practice  the  same 
sins,  and  ought,  I  believe,  to  be  sanctified  by  a  common 
grace. 

This  most  serious  truth  is  one  that  is  exceedingly  re¬ 
mote  from  the  present  age,  and  from  no  part  of  the  Christian 
world  more  remote  than  from  us.  All  our  modern  notions 
and  speculations  have  taken  a  bent  toward  individualism. 

74 


7  HE  ORGANIC  UNITY  OF  THE  FAMILY 


75 


In  the  state,  we  have  been  engaged  to  bring  out  the  civil 
rights  of  the  individual,  asserting  his  proper  liberties  as  a 
person,  and  vindicating  his  conscience,  as  a  subject  of  God, 
from  the  constraints  of  force.  In  matters  of  religion  we 
have  burst  the  bonds  of  church  authority,  and  erected  the 
individual  mind  into  a  tribunal  of  judgment  within  itself; 
we  have  asserted  free  will  as  the  ground  of  all  proper  re¬ 
sponsibility,  and  framed  our  theories  of  religion  so  as  to 
justify  the  incommunicable  nature  of  persons  as  distinct 
units.  While  thus  engaged,  we  have  well  nigh  lost,  as  was 
to  be  expected,  the  idea  of  organic  powers  and  relations. 
The  state,  the  church,  the  family,  have  ceased  to  be  regarded 
as  such,  according  to  their  proper  idea,  and  become  mere  col¬ 
lections  of  units.  A  national  life,  a  church  life,  a  family  life 
is  no  longer  conceived,  or  perhaps  conceivable,  by  many. 
Instead  of  being  wrought  in  together  and  penetrated,  to 
some  extent,  by  historic  laws  and  forces  common  to  all  the 
members,  we  only  seem  to  lie  as  seeds  piled  together,  with¬ 
out  any  terms  of  connection,  save  the  accident  of  proxim¬ 
ity,  or  the  fact  that  we  all  belong  to  the  heap.  And  thus 
the  three  great  forms  of  organic  existence  which  God  has 
appointed  for  the  race  are  in  fact  lost  out  of  mental  recog¬ 
nition.  The  conception  is  so  far  gone  that,  when  the  fact 
of  such  an  organic  relation  is  asserted,  our  enlightened  public 
will  stare  at  the  strange  conceit  and  wonder  what  can  be 
meant  by  a  paradox  so  absurd. 

My  design,  at  the  present  time,  is  to  restore,  if  possible, 
the  conception  of  one  of  these  organic  forms,  viz.:  the 
family.  For  though  we  have  gained  immense  advantages, 
in  a  civil,  ecclesiastical,  and  religious  point  of  view  by  our 
modern  development  of  individualism,  we  have  yet  run 
ourselves  into  many  hurtful  misapprehensions  on  all  these 


76 


THE  ORGANIC  UNITY 


subjects,  which,  if  they  are  not  rectified,  will  assuredly  bring 
disastrous  consequences.  And  nowhere  consequences  more 
disastrous  than  in  the  family,  where  they  are  already  ap¬ 
parent,  though  not  fully  matured;  for  the  very  change  of 
view,  by  which  we  have  cleared  individual  responsibility 
in  our  discussions  of  free  will,  original  sin,  and  kindred  sub¬ 
jects,  has  operated,  in  another  direction,  to  diminish  re¬ 
sponsibility  where  most  especially  it  needs  to  be  felt ;  that 
is,  in  Christian  families. 

What,  then,  do  we  mean  by  the  organic  unity  of  the  fam¬ 
ily  ?  It  will  be  understood,  of  course,  that  we  do  not  speak 
of  a  physical  or  vascular  connection;  for,  after  birth,  there 
is  no  such  connection  existing,  any  more  than  there  is  be¬ 
tween  persons  of  different  families.  In  so  far,  however,  as 
a  connection  of  parentage,  or  derivation,  has  affected  the 
character,  that  fact  must  be  included,  though  it  can  not  be 
regarded  as  a  chief  element  in  the  unity  asserted.  Perhaps 
I  shall  be  understood  with  the  greatest  facility  if  I  say  that 
the  family  is  such  a  body,  that  a  power  over  character  is 
exerted  therein  which  can  not  properly  be  called  influence. 
We  commonly  use  the  term  influence  to  denote  a  persuasive 
power,  or  a  governmental  power,  exerted  purposely  and  with 
a  conscious  design  to  effect  some  result  in  the  subject.  In 
maintaining  the  organic  unity  of  the  family,  I  mean  to  as¬ 
sert  that  a  power  is  exerted  by  parents  over  children,  not 
only  when  they  teach,  encourage,  persuade,  and  govern,  but 
without  any  purposed  control  whatever.  The  bond  is  so 
intimate  that  they  do  it  unconsciously  and  undesignedly — 
they  must  do  it.  Their  character,  feelings,  spirit,  and 
principles  must  propagate  themselves,  whether  they  will 
or  not.  However,  as  influence,  in  the  sense  just  given,  can 


OF  THE  FAMILY 


77 


not  be  received  by  childhood  prior  to  the  age  of  reason  and 
deliberative  choice,  the  control  of  parents,  purposely  ex¬ 
erted,  must  be  regarded,  during  that  early  period,  as  an 
absolute  force,  not  as  influence.  All  such  acts  of  control, 
therefore,  must,  in  metaphysical  propriety  and  as  far  as 
the  child  is  concerned,  be  classed  under  the  general  de¬ 
nomination  of  organic  causes.  And  thus  whatever  power 
over  character  is  exerted  in  families,  one  side  of  consent,  in 
the  children,  and  even  before  they  have  come  to  the  age 
of  rational  choice,  must  be  taken  as  organic  power,  in  the 
same  way  as  if  the  effect  accrued  under  the  law  of  simple 
contagion.  So,  too,  when  the  child  performs  acts  of  will 
under  parental  direction  that  involve  results  of  character, 
without  knowing  or  considering  that  they  do,  these  must 
be  classed  in  the  same  manner. 

In  general,  then,  we  find  the  organic  unity  of  the  family, 
in  every  exertion  of  power  over  character,  which  is  not 
exerted  and  received  as  influence;  that  is,  with  a  design  to 
address  the  choice  on  one  side,  and  a  sense  of  responsible 
choice  on  the  other.  Or,  to  use  language  more  popular,  we 
conceive  the  manners,  personal  views,  prejudices,  practical 
motives,  and  spirit  of  the  house  as  an  atmosphere  which 
passes  into  all  and  pervades  all,  as  naturally  as  the  air  they 
breathe.  This,  however,  not  in  any  such  absolute  or  com¬ 
plete  sense  as  to  leave  no  room  for  individual  distinctions. 
Sometimes  the  two  parents  will  have  a  very  different  spirit 
themselves,  though  the  grace  of  God  is  pledged  to  make 
the  better,  if  it  be  truly  right  and  hindered  by  no  gross  in¬ 
consistencies,  victorious.  Sometimes  the  child,  passing  into 
the  sphere  of  other  causes,  as  in  the  school,  the  church, 
neighboring  families,  or  general  society,  will  emerge  and 
take  a  character  partially  distinct — partially,  I  say;  never 


78 


THE  ORGANIC  UNITY 


wholly.  The  odor  of  the  house  will  always  be  in  his  garments, 
and  the  internal  difficulties  with  which  he  has  to  struggle 
will  spring  of  the  family  seeds  planted  in  his  nature. 

Having  carefully  stated  thus  what  I  mean  by  the  organic 
unity  of  the  family,  I  next  proceed  to  inquire  whether  any 
such  unity  exists?  And  here  it  is  worth  noticing — 

1.  That  there  is  nothing  in  this  view  which  conflicts  with 
the  proper  individuality  of  persons  and  their  separate  re¬ 
sponsibility.  We  have  gained  immense  advantages,  in 
modern  times,  as  regards  society,  government,  and  char¬ 
acter,  by  liberating  and  exalting  the  individual  man.  Far 
be  it  from  me  to  underrate  these  advantages,  or  to  bring 
them  into  jeopardy.  But  a  child  manifestly  can  not  be  a 
proper  individual  before  he  is  one.  Nothing  can  be  gained 
by  assuming  that  he  is;  and,  if  it  is  not  true,  much  is  sure 
to  be  lost.  Besides,  we  are  never,  at  any  age,  so  completely 
individual  as  to  be  clear  of  organic  connections  that  affect  our 
character.  To  a  certain  extent  and  for  certain  purposes, 
we  are  individuals,  acting  each  from  his  own  will.  Then  to 
a  certain  extent  and  for  certain  other  purposes,  we  are  parts 
or  members  of  a  common  body,  as  truly  as  the  limbs  of  a 
tree.  We  have  an  open  side  in  our  nature,  where  a  common 
feeling  enters,  where  we  adhere,  and  through  which  we  are 
actuated  by  a  common  will.  There  we  are  many — here  we 
are  one. 

It  is  remarkable,  too,  how  often,  without  knowing  it, 
and,  as  it  were  instinctively,  we  assume  the  fact  and  act 
upon  it.  We  do  it,  for  example,  as  between  nations,  where 
it  is  not  so  much  the  moral  life  as  the  national  that  con¬ 
structs  the  supposed  unity.  One  nation,  for  instance,  has 
injured  or  oppressed  another — sought  to  crush,  or  actually 


OF  THE  FAMILY 


79 


crushed  another  by  invasion.  A  century  or  more  afterwards 
the  wrong  is  remembered,  and  the  injured  nation  takes  the 
field,  still  burning  for  redress.  The  history  of  Carthage  and 
Rome  gives  us  an  example.  But,  suppose  it  had  been  said 
— “  This  is  very  absurd  in  you  Carthaginians.  The  Romans, 
who  did  you  the  injury,  are  all  dead,  and  those  who  now 
bear  the  name  are  their  children’s  children.  They  have 
done  you  no  injury  any  more  than  the  people  of  Britain  or 
India.  Neither  is  it  the  walls,  or  streets,  or  temples  of  Rome 
that  have  injured  you.  The  Roman  territory  is  mere  land, 
and  this  has  not  injured  you.  Why  then  go  to  war  with 
the  Romans?  How  absurd  to  think  of  redressing  your  old 
injuries  by  a  war  with  men  who  have  done  you  no  harm !” 
Now,  it  was  by  just  this  kind  of  sophistry  that  Mr.  Jeffer¬ 
son  proved  that  a  public  debt  is  obligatory  for  only  one 
generation,  and  possibly  the  Carthaginians  might  have  been 
speculatively  stumbled  by  such  reasonings.  Still,  they 
could  not  have  been  quite  satisfied,  I  think,  of  their  valid¬ 
ity.  Against  all  speculation,  they  would  still  have  felt  that 
the  proposed  war  was  somehow  reconcilable  with  reason. 
The  question  is  not  whether,  on  Christian  principles,  they 
were  right,  but  whether,  on  natural  principles,  they  were 
absurd.  This  probably  no  reader  of  the  history  has  ever 
felt.  For,  whether  it  squares  with  our  speculative  notions 
or  not,  we  do  all  tacitly  assume  the  organic  unity  of  nations. 
The  past  we  behold,  living  in  the  present,  and  all  together 
we  regard  as  one,  inhabited  by  the  common  life.  How  much 
more  true  is  this  (though  in  a  different  way)  in  families, 
where  the  common  life  is  so  nearly  absolute  over  the  mem¬ 
bers;  where  they  are  all  inclosed  within  the  four  walls  of 
their  dwellings,  partakers  in  a  common  blood,  in  common 
interests,  wants,  feelings,  and  principles. 


80 


THE  ORGANIC  UNITY 


2.  We  discover  the  organic  unity  of  families  in  the  fact 
that  one  generation  is  the  natural  offspring  of  another. 
And  so  much  is  there  in  this,  that  the  children  almost  al¬ 
ways  betray  their  origin  in  their  looks  and  features.  The 
stamp  of  a  common  nature  is  on  them,  revealed  in  the 
stature,  complexion,  gait,  form,  and  dispositions.  Some¬ 
times  we  seem  to  see  remarkable  exceptions.  But,  in  such 
cases,  we  should  commonly  find,  if  we  could  bring  up  to 
view  the  ancestors  of  remoter  generations,  that  the  family 
bond  is  still  perpetuated,  only  by  a  wider  reach  of  connection. 
There  are  said  to  be  two  maiden  sisters,  the  last  of  a  distin¬ 
guished  family,  now  living  in  England,  who,  having  no  re¬ 
semblance  to  any  near  ancestor,  have  yet  a  very  striking 
resemblance  to  the  portrait,  still  hanging  in  the  family 
mansion,  of  an  ancestor  seven  generations  back.  Indeed, 
I  have  myself  distinguished,  by  their  looks,  the  relationship 
of  two  persons,  connected  by  a  common  derivation  eight 
generations  back,  and  who  more  closely  resembled  each 
other  in  their  persons,  than  either,  his  nearest  kindred.  So 
that,  in  cases  where  there  seems  to  be  no  transmission  of 
resemblances,  there  is  yet  a  probable  transmission,  only  one 
that  is  covert  and  more  comprehensive.  Now,  strong  ex¬ 
ternal  resemblances  may  coexist  with  marked  external  dif¬ 
ferences,  and  therefore  do  not  prove  a  coincidence  of  char¬ 
acter.  And  yet  it  can  not  be  denied  that,  as  far  as  they  go, 
they  argue  a  transmission  of  capacities  and  dispositions, 
which  enter  into  character,  as  remote  causes  or  occasions. 
Nor  does  it  make  any  difference,  as  regards  the  matter  in 
question,  whether  souls  or  spiritual  natures  come  into  be¬ 
ing  through  propagation  or  not.  If  they  are  created,  as 
some  fancy,  by  the  immediate  inbreathing  of  God,  still 
they  are  measured  by  the  house  they  are  to  live  in,  and  the 


OF  THE  FAMILY 


81 


outward  man  is,  in  all  cases,  a  fit  organ  for  the  person  within. 
The  dispositions,  tempers,  capacities — the  natural,  and,  to 
a  great  extent,  the  moral  character — have  the  outward  frame 
as  a  fit  organ  of  use  and  expression.  It  will  even  be  observed, 
too,  that  in  cases  where  there  is  a  remarkable  change  of 
character,  it  will  be  signified,  in  due  time,  by  a  change  of 
manner,  aspect,  and  action. 

Besides,  it  is  well  understood  that  qualities  received  by 
training,  and  not  in  themselves  natural,  do  also  pass  by 
transmission.  It  is  said,  for  example,  that  the  dog  used  in 
hunting  was  originally  trained  by  great  care  and  effort,  and 
that  now  almost  no  training  is  necessary;  for  the  artificial 
quality  has  become,  to  a  great  extent,  natural  in  the  stock. 
So  there  is  little  room  to  doubt  that  every  sort  of  character 
and  employment  passes  an  effect  and  works  some  predis¬ 
position  in  those  who  come  after. 

Could  we  enter  into  the  mental  habits  of  those  children 
who  are  spoken  of  in  my  text,  and  trace  out  all  the  threads 
of  their  inward  character  and  disposition,  we  should  doubt¬ 
less  find  some  color  of  idolatry  in  the  fiber  of  their  very  being. 
They  are  not  such  as  they  would  be,  if  their  parents,  of  this 
and  remote  generations,  had  been  worshipers  of  the  true 
God.  Their  talents,  dispositions,  propensities  are  different. 
The  idol  god  is  in  their  faces  and  their  bones,  and  his  stamp 
is  on  their  spirit.  Not  in  such  a  sense  that  the  sin  of  idol¬ 
atry  is  in  them — that  is  inconceivable;  for  no  proper  sin 
can  pass  by  transmission — but  that  they  have  a  vicious  or 
prejudicial  infection  from  it,  a  damage  accruing  from  their 
historical  connection  and  that  of  their  progenitors  with  it. 

Nor,  with  these  familiar  laws  of  physiology  before  us,  is 
it  reasonable  to  doubt  that  where  there  is  a  long  line  of 
godly  fathers  and  mothers,  kept  up  in  regular  succession  for 


82 


THE  ORGANIC  UNITY 


many  generations,  a  religious  temperament  may  at  length 
be  produced,  that  is  more  in  the  power  of  conscience,  less 
wayward  as  regards  principles  of  integrity,  and  more  pliant 
to  the  Christian  motives.  More  could  be  said  with  confidence 
if  the  godly  character  were  less  ambiguous  and  more  thor¬ 
oughly  sanctified. 

3.  We  shall  find  that  there  is  a  law  of  connection,  after 
birth,  under  which  power  over  character  is  exerted  without 
any  design  to  do  it.  For  a  considerable  time  after  birth 
the  child  has  no  capacity  of  will  and  choice  developed,  and 
therefore  is  not  a  subject  of  influence,  in  the  common  sense 
of  that  term.  He  is  not  as  yet  a  complete  individual;  he 
has  only  powers  and  capacities  that  prepare  him  to  be  when 
they  are  unfolded.  They  are  in  him  only  as  wings  and  a 
capacity  to  fly  are  in  the  egg.  Meantime,  he  is  open  to 
impressions  from  every  thing  he  sees.  His  character  is 
forming,  under  a  principle,  not  of  choice,  but  of  nurture. 
The  spirit  of  the  house  is  breathed  into  his  nature,  day  by 
day.  The  anger  and  gentleness,  the  fretfulness  and  patience 
— the  appetites,  passions,  and  manners — all  the  variant 
moods  of  feeling  exhibited  round  him,  pass  into  him  as  im¬ 
pressions,  and  become  seeds  of  character  in  him,  not  because 
the  parents  will,  but  because  it  must  be  so  whether  they  will 
or  not.  They  propagate  their  own  evil  in  the  child,  not  by 
design,  but  under  a  law  of  moral  infection.  Before  the 
children  begin  to  gather  wood  for  the  sacrifice  the  spirit  of 
the  idol  and  his  faith  has  been  communicated.  The  airs 
and  feelings  and  conduct  of  idolatry  have  filled  their  nature 
with  impressions  which  are  back  of  all  choice  and  memory. 
Go  out  to  them,  then,  as  they  are  gathering  faggots  for  the 
idol  sacrifice,  ask  them  what  questions  they  have  had  about 
the  service  of  the  god?  what  doubts?  whether  any  un- 


OF  THE  FAMILY 


83 


satisfied  debate  or  perplexing  struggle  has  visited  their 
minds?  and  you  will  probably  awaken  their  first  thoughts 
on  the  subject  by  the  inquiry  itself.  All  because  they  have 
grown  up  in  the  idol  worship,  from  a  point  back  of  memory. 
They  received  it  through  their  impressions,  before  they 
were  able  to  receive  it  from  choice.  And  so  it  is  with  all 
the  moral  transactions  of  the  house.  The  spirit  of  the  house 
is  in  the  members  by  nurture,  not  by  teaching,  not  by  any 
attempt  to  communicate  the  same,  but  because  it  is  the  air 
the  children  breathe. 

Now,  it  is  in  the  twofold  manner  set  forth,  under  this  and 
the  previous  head  of  my  discourse,  that  our  race  have 
fallen,  as  a  race,  into  moral  corruption  and  apostasy.  In 
these  two  methods  also,  they  have  been  subjected,  as  an 
organic  unity,  to  evil;  so  that  when  they  come  to  the  age 
of  proper  individuality,  the  damage  received  has  prepared 
them  to  set  forth,  on  a  course  of  blamable  and  guilty  trans¬ 
gression.  The  question  of  original  or  imputed  sin  has  been 
much  debated  in  modern  times,  and  the  effort  has  been  to 
vindicate  the  personal  responsibility  of  each  individual,  as 
a  moral  agent.  Nor  is  any  thing  more  clear,  on  first  prin¬ 
ciples,  than  that  no  man  is  responsible  for  any  sin  but  his 
own.  The  sin  of  no  person  can  be  transmitted  as  a  sin,  or 
charged  to  the  account  of  another.  But  it  does  not  there¬ 
fore  follow,  that  there  are  no  moral  connections  between 
individuals,  by  which  one  becomes  a  corrupter  of  others. 
If  we  are  units,  so  also  are  we  a  race,  and  the  race  is  one — 
one  family,  one  organic  whole;  such  that  the  fall  of  the  head 
involves  the  fall  of  all  the  members.  Under  the  old  doc¬ 
trines  of  original  sin,  federal  headship,  and  the  like,  cast 
away  by  many,  ridiculed  by  not  a  few,  there  yet  lies  a  great 
and  momentous  truth,  announced  by  reason  as  clearly  as  by 


84 


THE  ORGANIC  UNITY 


Scripture — that  in  Adam  all  die;  that  by  one  man’s  dis¬ 
obedience  many  were  made  sinners;  that  death  hath  passed 
upon  all  men,  for  that  all  have  sinned.  Not  that  this  orig¬ 
inal  scheme  of  unity  is  any  disadvantage.  I  firmly  believe 
and  think  I  could  show  the  contrary  even.  Enough  that 
so  the  Scriptures  speak,  and  that  so  we  see,  by  inspection 
itself.  There  can  be  no  greater  credulity,  than  for  any  man 
to  expect  that  a  sinful  and  death-struck  being,  one  who  has 
fallen  out  of  the  harmony  of  his  mold  by  sin,  should  yet 
communicate  no  trace  of  evil  from  himself,  no  diseased  or 
damaged  quality,  no  moral  discolor,  to  the  generations  that 
derive  their  existence  from  him.  To  make  that  possible, 
every  law  of  physiology  must  be  adjourned,  and,  what  is 
more,  all  that  we  see  with  our  eyes,  in  the  eventful  era  of 
impressions,  must  be  denied. 

I  am  well  aware  that  those  who  have  advocated,  in  for¬ 
mer  times,  the  church  dogma  of  original  sin,  as  well  as  those 
who  adhere  to  it  now,  speak  only  of  a  taint  derived  by 
natural  or  physical  propagation,  and  do  not  include  the 
taint  derived  afterwards,  under  the  law  of  family  infection. 
It  certainly  can  be  no  heresy  to  include  the  latter;  and, 
since  it  is  manifest  that  both  fall  within  the  same  general 
category  of  organic  connection,  it  is  equally  manifest  that 
both  ought  to  be  included,  and,  in  all  systematic  reason¬ 
ings,  must  be.  If,  during  the  age  of  impressions  in  the 
child,  and  previous  to  the  development  of  will,  a  power  is 
exerted  over  character — exerted  necessarily,  both  as  re¬ 
gards  the  sinful  parent  and  the  child,  and  that  as  truly  as 
if  it  fell  within  the  laws  of  propagation  itself — it  can  not  be 
right  to  attribute  the  moral  taint  wholly,  or  even  princi¬ 
pally,  to  propagation.  Until  the  child  comes  to  his  will, 
we  must  regard  him  still  as  held  within  the  matrix  of  the 


OF  THE  FAMILY 


85 


parental  life;  and  then,  when  he  is  ripe  for  responsible 
choice,  as  born  for  action — a  proper  and  complete  person. 
Taking  this  comprehensive  view  of  the  organic  unity  of 
successive  generations  of  men,  the  truth  we  assert  of  human 
depravation  is  not  a  half-truth  exaggerated  (which  many 
will  not  regard  as  any  truth  at  all),  but  it  is  a  broad,  well-  j 
authenticated  doctrine,  which  no  intelligent  observer  of  J 
facts  and  principles  can  deny.  It  shows  the  past  descending 
on  the  present,  the  present  on  the  future,  by  an  inevitable 
law,  and  yet  gives  every  parent  the  hope  of  mitigating  the 
sad  legacy  of  mischief  he  entails  upon  .his  children,  by 
whatever  improvements  of  character  and  conduct  he  is 
able  to  make — a  hope  which  Christian  promise  so  far  clears 
to  his  view,  as  even  to  allow  him  the  presumption  that  his 
child  may  be  set  forth  into  responsible  action,  as  a  Chris¬ 
tian  person. 

In  offering  these  thoughts,  it  will  be  seen  that  I  have  not 
digressed  from  my  subject,  but  have  extended  the  proof  of 
my  doctrine  rather,  discovering  within  its  scope,  the  fall  of 
man  itself.  As  a  farther  proof  of  the  organic  unity  of  the 
family,  I  allege — 

4.  The  fact  that,  in  all  organic  bodies  known  to  us — 
states,  churches,  sects,  armies — there  is  a  common  spirit, 
by  which  they  are  pervaded  and  distinguished  from  each 
other.  And  we  use  this  word  spirit,  in  such  cases,  to  de¬ 
note  a  power  interfused,  a  comprehensive  will  actuating  the 
members,  regarding  also  the  common  body  itself,  as  a  larger 
and  more  inclusive  individual.  How  different,  for  exam¬ 
ple,  is  the  spirit  of  France  from  the  spirit  of  England;  the 
spirit  of  both,  from  that  of  the  United  States;  and  that, 
from  the  spirit  of  the  Spartan  or  Athenian  republic.  This 
national  spirit,  too,  is,  as  it  were,  a  common  power  in  each, 


86 


THE  ORGANIC  UNITY 


by  which  the  subordinate  individual  members  are  assimi¬ 
lated,  and  made  to  have  a  kind  of  organic  character.  And 
so  much  is  there  in  this,  that  an  Englishman  can  not  make 
to  himself  a  French  character,  or  any  one  of  us  an  English 
character.  We  can  not  act  the  character  one  of  another; 
for  so  distant  are  the  feelings,  prejudices,  and  temperaments 
of  each,  that  they  can  not  even  be  accurately  conceived 
and  reproduced,  unless  we  are  actually  enveloped  in  them 
as  an  atmosphere. 

In  the  same  manner,  there  is  a  peculiar  spirit  in  every 
church.  Whether  you  take  the  larger  divisions,  the  Jew¬ 
ish,  the  Greek,  the  Roman,  the  Episcopal,  the  Presbyte¬ 
rian,  the  Baptist,  the  Congregational,  or  descend  to  the 
particular  churches  of  a  given  city,  you  will  find  something 
characteristic  in  each — a  common  power,  which  gives  a 
common  stamp  to  the  members  peculiar  to  themselves. 
Or,  if  you  visit  a  Quaker  settlement,  where  a  few  men  and 
women  are  gathered  into  a  kind  of  church  family,  you  will 
discover  that  the  members  are  pervaded,  all,  by  a  peculiar 
spirit  as  distinct  from  the  world  around  them  as  if  they  were 
a  new  discovered  people.  And  these  Quaker  settlements 
may  be  taken  as  a  kind  of  intermediate  link  between  the 
church-state  and  the  family. 

Passing  then  to  families,  you  are  not  surprised  to  dis¬ 
cover  the  same  thing.  This  is  specially  evident  where  the 
family  is  isolated,  and  does  not  mingle  extensively  with  the 
world.  You  can  scarcely  open  the  door,  and  take  a  seat  in 
their  house,  least  of  all  can  you  go  to  their  table,  or  spend 
a  night  in  their  hospitality,  without  being  impressed  by  the 
fact.  And  this  family  spirit  will  sometimes  be  exceedingly 
opposite  to  the  spirit  of  goodness.  Here  it  is  money,  money, 
written  on  every  face;  here  it  is  good  living;  here  show; 


OF  THE  FAMILY 


87 


here  scandal  and  detraction.  Sometimes  the  sense  of  re¬ 
ligion  and  of  spiritual  things  will  seem  to  be  nearly  lost,  or 
obliterated.  Sometimes  a  positive  hatred  of  God  and  all 
good  men  and  principles  will  constitute  the  staple  of  family 
feeling.  Sometimes  a  dull  and  sullen  contempt  of  such 
things  will  hold  the  place  of  open  animosity. 

It  is  very  true  that  the  family  spirit  does  not  always  per¬ 
fectly  master  and  assimilate  all  the  members.  You  will 
find  a  Christian  son  or  daughter,  here  and  there,  in  spite 
of  the  ruling  spirit  of  the  house.  This,  however,  because 
families  are  to  some  extent  intermingled;  in  which  it  comes 
to  pass  that  children  often  fall  under  the  power  of  another 
spirit,  that  masters  the  spirit  reigning  at  home.  The  chil¬ 
dren  go  into  other  families,  where  they  are  visited  by  other 
feelings.  They  go  into  the  church  of  God,  where  the  church 
spirit  breathes  another  atmosphere.  In  the  school,  they  are 
penetrated  by  the  school  spirit.  In  the  shop,  or  in  the 
transactions  of  trade,  the  same  is  true.  Were  it  not  for 
this,  the  family  spirit  might  almost  uniformly  rule  the  char¬ 
acter  of  the  members.  Who  ever  expects  that  an  idola¬ 
trous  religion,  in  the  house,  will  not  uniformly  produce 
idolaters?  So  the  Mohammedan  spirit  makes  only  Mo¬ 
hammedans.  In  like  manner,  a  thievish  house  perpetuates 
a  race  of  thieves.  Consider  also  the  ductility  and  the  per¬ 
fect  passivity  of  childhood.  Early  childhood  resists  noth¬ 
ing.  What  is  given  it  receives,  making  no  selection.  To 
expect  therefore  that  a  child  will  form  to  himself  a  spirit 
opposite  to  the  spirit  of  the  family,  without  once  feeling 
the  power  of  a  counteractive  spirit,  would  be  credulous  in 
the  highest  degree.  Doubtless  he  has  a  conscience,  which 
is  the  law  of  God,  in  his  breast,  and  he  has  a  will  free  to 
choose  what  his  conscience  requires.  But  his  passions  are 


88 


THE  ORGANIC  UNITY 


unfolded  before  his  discretion,  his  prejudices  bent  before 
he  assumes  the  function  of  self-government.  He  breathes 
the  atmosphere  of  the  house.  He  sees  the  world  through 
his  parents’  eyes.  Their  objects  become  his.  Their  life 
and  spirit  mold  him.  If  they  are  carnal,  coarse,  passion¬ 
ate,  profane,  sensual,  devilish,  his  little  plastic  nature  takes 
the  poison  of  course.  Their  very  motions,  manners,  and 
voices  will  be  distinguishable  in  him.  He  lives  and  moves 
and  has  his  being  in  them. 

I  do  not  say,  of  course,  that  he  will  exactly  resemble  them 
in  character.  Were  he  to  receive  a  contagious  disease,  he 
would,  doubtless,  be  differently  handled  under  it,  from  the 
person  who  gave  the  infection.  I  only  say,  that  the  moral 
disease  of  the  family  he  assuredly  will  take,  and  that,  prob¬ 
ably,  without  even  a  question,  or  a  cautious  feeling  started. 
If  some  other  spirit,  from  other  families,  or  the  church,  or 
the  world,  do  not  reach  him,  the  organic  spirit  of  the  house 
will  infallibly  shape  and  subordinate  his  character. 

5.  We  are  led  to  the  same  conclusions,  by  considering 
what  may  be  called  the  organic  working  of  a  family.  The 
child  begins,  at  length,  to  develop  his  character,  in  and 
through  his  voluntary  power.  But  he  is  still  under  the  au¬ 
thority  of  the  parent,  and  has  only  a  partial  control  of  him¬ 
self,  in  the  development  of  which,  he  is  gradually  approach¬ 
ing  a  complete  personality.  Now,  there  is  a  perpetual 
working  in  the  family,  by  which  the  wills,  both  of  the  par¬ 
ents  and  the  children,  are  held  in  exercise,  and  which,  with¬ 
out  any  design  to  affect  character  on  one  side,  or  conscious 
consent  on  the  other,  is  yet  fashioning  results  of  a  moral 
quality,  as  it  were  by  the  joint  industry  of  the  house.  And 
these  results  are  to  be  taken,  according  to  our  definition, 
as  included  in  the  organic  unity  of  the  family.  I  except,  of 


OF  THE  FAMILY 


89 


course,  all  the  voluntary  actings  that  are  designed  to  in¬ 
fluence  the  child,  and  are  yielded  to  by  him,  as  consciously 
right  or  wrong. 

The  truth  here  brought  to  view  is  graphically  set  forth 
in  my  text.  Whatever  working  there  is  in  the  house,  all 
work  together.  If  the  fathers  kindle  the  fire,  and  the 
women  knead  the  cakes,  the  children  will  gather  the  wood, 
and  the  idol  worship  will  set  the  whole  circle  of  the  house 
in  action.  The  child  being  under  the  law  of  the  parents, 
they  will  keep  him  at  work  to  execute  their  plans,  or  their 
sins,  as  the  case  may  be;  and,  as  they  will  seldom  think  of 
what  they  do,  or  require,  so  he  will  seldom  have  any  scruple 
concerning  it.  The  property  gained  belongs  to  the  family. 
They  have  a  common  interest,  and  every  prejudice  or  ani¬ 
mosity  felt  by  the  parents,  the  children  are  sure  to  feel  even 
more  intensely.  They  are  all  locked  together,  in  one  cause 
— in  common  cares,  hopes,  offices,  and  duties;  for  their 
honor  and  dishonor,  their  sustenance,  their  ambition,  all 
their  objects  are  common.  So  they  are  trained  of  neces¬ 
sity  to  a  kind  of  general  working,  or  cooperation,  and,  like 
stones,  rolled  together  in  some  brook  or  eddy,  they  wear 
each  other  into  common  shapes.  If  the  family  subsist  by 
plunder,  then  the  infant  is  swaddled  as  a  thief,  the  child 
wears  a  thief  s  garments,  and  feeds  the  growth  of  his  body 
on  stolen  meat;  and,  in  due  time,  he  will  have  the  trade 
upon  him,  without  ever  knowing  that  he  has  taken  it  up,  or 
when  he  took  it  up.  If  the  father  is  intemperate,  the  chil¬ 
dren  must  go  on  errands  to  procure  his  supplies,  lose  the 
shame  that  might  be  their  safety,  be  immersed  in  the  fumes 
of  liquor  in  going  and  coming,  and  why  not  rewarded  by 
an  occasional  taste  of  what  is  so  essential  to  the  enjoyment 
of  life  ?  If  the  family  subsist  in  idleness  and  beggary,  then 


90 


THE  ORGANIC  UNITY 


the  children  will  be  trained  to  lie  skillfully,  and  maintain 
their  false  pretences  with  a  plausible  effrontery — all  this, 
you  will  observe,  not  as  a  sin,  but  as  a  trade. 

Nor  does  what  I  am  saying  hold,  only  in  cases  of  extreme 
viciousness  and  depravity.  Whatever  fire  the  fathers  kin¬ 
dle,  the  children  are  always  found  gathering  the  wood — • 
always  helping  as  accessaries  and  apprentices.  If  the  father 
reads  a  newspaper,  or  a  sporting  gazette  on  Sunday,  the 
family  must  help  him  find  it.  If  he  writes  a  letter  of  busi¬ 
ness  on  Sunday,  he  will  send  his  child  to  the  office  with  the 
letter.  If  the  mother  is  a  scandal-monger;  she  will  make 
her  children  spies  and  eaves-droppers.  If  she  directs  her 
servant  to  say,  at  the  door,  that  she  is  not  at  home,  she  will 
sometimes  be  overheard  by  her  child.  If  she  is  ambitious 
that  her  children  should  excel  in  the  display  of  finery  and 
fashion,  they  must  wear  the  show  and  grow  up  in  the  spirit 
of  it.  If  her  house  is  a  den  of  disorder  and  filth,  they  must 
be  at  home  in  it.  Fretfulness  and  ill-temper  in  the  parents 
are  provocations,  and  therefore  somewhat  more  efficacious 
than  commandments,  to  the  same.  The  proper  result  will 
be  a  congenial  assemblage,  in  the  house,  of  petulance  and 
ill-nature.  The  niggardly  parsimony  that  quarrels  with  a 
child  when  asking  for  a  book  needful  for  his  proficiency  at 
school  is  teaching  him  that  money  is  worth  more  than 
knowledge.  If  the  parents  are  late  risers,  the  children  must 
not  disturb  the  house,  but  stay  quiet  and  take  a  lesson  that 
is  not  to  assist  their  energy  and  promptness  in  the  future 
business  of  life.  If  they  go  to  church  only  half  of  the  day, 
they  will  not  send  their  children  the  other  half.  If  they 
never  read  the  Bible,  they  will  never  teach  it.  If  they 
laugh  at  religion,  they  will  put  a  face  upon  it,  which  will 
make  their  children  justify  the  contempt  they  express.  This 


OF  THE  FAMILY 


91 


enumeration  might  be  indefinitely  extended.  Enough  that 
we  see,  in  the  working  of  the  house,  how  all  the  members 
work  together.  The  children  fall  into  their  places  natu¬ 
rally,  as  it  were,  and  unconsciously,  to  do  and  to  suffer  ex¬ 
actly  what  the  general  scheme  of  the  house  requires.  With¬ 
out  any  design  to  that  effect,  all  the  actings  of  business, 
pleasure,  and  sin,  propagate  themselves  throughout  the  cir¬ 
cle,  as  the  weights  of  a  clock  maintain  the  workings  of  the 
wheels.  Where  there  is  no  effort  to  teach  wrong,  or  thought 
of  it,  the  house  is  yet  a  school  of  wrong,  and  the  life  of  the 
house  is  only  a  practical  drill  in  evil. 

Having  sufficiently  established,  as  I  think,  by  these  illus¬ 
trations,  the  organic  unity  of  families,  it  remains  to  add 
some  practical  thoughts  of  a  more  specific  nature.  And — 

1.  It  becomes  a  question  of  great  moment,  as  connected 
with  the  doctrine  established,  whether  it  is  the  design  of 
the  Christian  scheme  to  take  possession  of  the  organic  laws 
of  the  family,  and  wield  them  as  instruments,  in  any  sense, 
of  a  regenerative  purpose?  And  here  we  are  met  by  the 
broad  principle  that  Christianity  endeavors  to  make  every 
object,  favor,  and  relation  an  instrument  of  righteousness, 
according  to  its  original  design.  What  intelligent  person 
ever  supposed  that  the  original  constitution,  by  which  one 
generation  derives  its  existence  and  receives  the  bent  of  its 
character  from  another,  was  designed  of  God  to  be  the 
vehicle  only  of  depravity?  It  might  as  well  be  supposed 
that  men  themselves  were  made  to  be  containers  of  deprav¬ 
ity.  The  only  supposition  that  honors  God  is,  that  the 
organic  unity,  of  which  I  speak,  was  ordained  originally 
for  the  nurture  of  holy  virtue  in  the  beginning  of  each  soul’s 
history;  and  that  Christianity,  or  redemption,  must  of 


92 


THE  ORGANIC  UNITY 


necessity  take  possession  of  the  abused  vehicle,  and  sanc¬ 
tify  it  for  its  own  merciful  uses.  That  an  engine  of  so  great 
power  should  be  passed  by,  when  every  other  law  and 
object  in  the  universe  is  appropriated  and  wielded  as  an 
instrument  of  grace,  and  that  in  a  movement  for  the  re¬ 
demption  of  the  race,  is  inconceivable.  The  conclusion 
thus  reached  does  not  carry  us,  indeed,  to  the  certain  infer¬ 
ence  that  the  organic  unity  of  the  family  will  avail  to  set 
forth  every  child  of  Christian  parents,  in  a  Christian  life. 
But  if  we  consider  the  tremendous  power  it  has  as  an  in¬ 
strument  of  evil,  how  far  short  of  such  an  opinion  does  it 
leave  us,  when  computing  the  reach  of  its  power  as  an  in¬ 
strument  of  grace? 

Passing  next  to  the  Scriptures,  we  find  such  reasonings 
justified,  as  explicitly  as  we  can  desire.  I  am  not  disposed 
to  press  the  language  of  Scripture,  which  is  popular,  to  ex¬ 
treme  conclusions.  But  I  observe  that  Christ  is  called  a 
second  Adam  and  a  last  Adam:  language,  to  say  the  least, 
that  suits  the  idea  of  a  proposed  union  with  the  race,  under 
its  organic  laws — as  if,  entering  into  the  Christian  family, 
his  design  were  to  fill  it  with  a  family  spirit,  which  shall 
controvert  and  master  the  old  evil  spirit.  The  declara¬ 
tion  corresponds,  that,  as  by  one  man’s  disobedience  many 
were  made  sinners,  so  by  the  obedience  of  one  shall  many 
be  made  righteous — language  that  measures  the  grace  by 
the  mischief,  and  shows  it  flowing  in  a  parallel,  but  fuller 
stream.  It  may  not  be  easy  to  settle,  beyond  dispute,  the 
relation  of  the  old  covenant  to  the  new;  but  there  can  be 
no  question  that  the  church,  under  Abraham,  was  mea¬ 
sured,  in  some  sense,  by  the  organic  unity  of  the  family  of 
Abraham.  The  covenant  was  a  family  covenant,  in  which 
God  engaged  to  be  the  God  of  the  seed,  as  of  the  father. 


OF  THE  FAMILY 


93 


And  the  seal  of  the  covenant  was  a  seal  of  faith,  applied  to 
the  whole  house,  as  if  the  continuity  of  faith  were  some¬ 
how  to  be,  or  somehow  might  be,  maintained  in  a  line  that 
is  parallel  with  the  continuity  of  sin,  in  the  family.  Nor 
was  the  result  to  depend  on  mere  natural  generation,  how¬ 
ever  sanctified,  but  on  the  organic  causes  also,  that  are 
involved  in  family  nurture,  after  birth.  For  we  are  ex¬ 
pressly  informed  (Gen.  xviii.  19)  that  God  rested  his  cove¬ 
nant,  or  engagement,  on  the  conduct  of  Abraham — “for  I 
know  him  that  he  will  command  his  children  and  his  house¬ 
hold  after  him,  and  they  shall  keep  the  way  of  the  Lord,  to 
do  justice  and  judgment,  that  the  Lord  may  bring  upon 
Abraham  that  which  he  hath  spoken  of  him.”  And  thus 
we  see  that  the  old  church,  beyond  any  possible  question, 
was  to  have  its  grounds  of  perpetuity,  in  and  by  the  same 
terms  of  organic  unity,  which  sin  has  made  the  vehicle  of 
depravity.  Descending  then  to  the  New  Testament,  Jesus 
the  world’s  Redeemer  is  declared  to  have  suffered,  “that 
the  blessing  of  Abraham  might  come  on  the  Gentiles,”  and 
the  Gentiles  are  said  to  be  “graffed  in.”  The  new  “seed,” 
viz.,  “Christ,”  are  said  to  be  “the  seed  of  Abraham,”  and 
“heirs  of  the  promise”  made  to  him.  The  old  rite  of  prose¬ 
lyte  baptism,  which  made  the  families  receiving  it  Jewish 
citizens  and  children  of  Abraham,  was  applied  over  directly 
to  the  Christian  uses,  and  the  rite  went  by  “households”; 
even  as  the  New  Testament  promise  also  was — “to  you 
and  to  your  children.”  Even  the  old  Jewish  law,  that  one 
Jewish  parent  made  a  Jewish  child,  is  brought  into  the 
church,  and  one  believing  parent  “sanctifies”  the  child. 
In  all  of  which,  it  seems  to  be  clearly  held  that  grace  shall 
travel  by  the  same  conveyance  with  sin;  that  the  organic 
unity,  which  I  have  spoken  of  chiefly  as  an  instrument  of 


94 


THE  ORGANIC  UNITY 


corruption,  is  to  be  occupied  and  sanctified  by  Christ,  and 
become  an  instrument  also  of  mercy  and  life.  And  thence 
it  follows  that  the  seal  of  faith,  applied  to  households,  is 
to  be  no  absurdity;  for  it  is  the  privilege  and  duty  of  every 
Christian  parent  that  his  children  shall  come  forth  into 
responsible  action,  as  a  regenerated  stock.  The  organic 
unity  is  to  be  a  power  of  life.  God  engages,  on  his  part, 
that  it  may  be,  and  calls  the  Christian  parent  to  promise, 
on  his  part,  that  it  shall  be.  Thus  the  church  has  a  con¬ 
stitutive  element  from  the  family  in  it  still,  as  it  had  in  the 
days  of  Abraham.  The  church  life — that  is,  the  Holy 
Spirit — collects  families  into  a  common  organism,  and  then, 
by  sanctifying  the  laws  of  organic  unity  in  families,  extends 
its  quickening  power  to  the  generation  following,  so  as  to 
include  the  future,  and  make  it  one  with  the  past.  And 
so  the  church,  in  all  ages,  becomes  a  body  under  Christ 
the  head,  as  the  race  is  a  body  under  Adam  the  head — a 
living  body,  quickened  by  him  who  has  life  in  himself, 
fitly  joined  together  and  compacted  by  that  which  every 
joint  supplieth. 

2.  The  theological  importance  of  our  doctrine  of  or¬ 
ganic  unity,  when  brought  up  to  this  point,  is  exhibited  in 
many  ways,  and  especially  in  the  fact  that  it  gives  the  only 
true  solution  of  the  Christian  church  and  of  baptism  as  re¬ 
lated  to  membership.  I  hardly  dare  attempt  to  speak  of 
the  “sacramental  grace/’  supposed  to  attend  the  rite  of 
baptism,  under  the  priestly  forms  of  Christianity;  for  I 
have  never  been  able  to  give  any  consistent  and  dignified 
meaning  to  the  language  in  which  it  is  set  forth.  That 
there  is  a  grace  attendant  falling  on  all  the  parties  con¬ 
cerned,  is  quite  evident,  if  they  are  doing  their  duty;  for 
no  person,  whether  laic  or  priest,  can  do,  or  intend  what 


OF  THE  FAMILY 


95 


is  right,  without  some  spiritual  benefit.  But  the  child  is 
said  to  be  “  regenerate,  spiritually  united  to  Christ,  a  new 
creature  in  Christ  Jesus/’  under  the  official  grace  of  baptism. 
Then  this  language,  so  full  of  import,  is  defined,  after  all, 
to  mean  only  that  the  child  is  in  the  church,  where  the 
grace  of  God  surrounds  him — translated  (not  internally, 
but  externally)  from  the  sphere  of  nature  into  a  new  sphere, 
where  all  the  aids  of  grace  available  for  his  salvation  are 
furnished.  Sometimes  it  is  added  that  his  sins  are  remit¬ 
ted,  though  no  man  is  likely  to  believe  that  he  has  any  sins 
to  remit;  or,  if  the  meaning  be  that  the  corrupted  quality, 
physiologically  inherent  in  his  nature,  is  wrashed  away,  he 
will  show  in  due  time  that  it  is  not;  and  no  one,  in  fact, 
believes  that  it  is.  Then,  if  it  be  asked  whether  the  new 
sphere  of  grace  will  assuredly  work  a  gracious  character, 
“No,”  is  the  answer.  “If  the  child  is  not  faithful,  or  hin¬ 
ders  the  grace,  he  will  lose  it” — that  is,  he  will  not  stay 
regenerate.  And  then  as  the  child,  in  every  case,  is  sure, 
in  some  bad  sense,  not  to  be  faithful,  he  is  equally  sure  to 
lose  the  grace  and  be  landed  in  a  second  state  that  is  worse 
than  the  first.  And  thus  it  turns  out,  after  all,  as  far  as 
I  can  see,  that  the  grace  magnified  in  the  beginning,  by 
wrords  of  so  high  an  import,  is  a  thing  of  no  value — it  is 
nothing.  It  is,  in  fact,  one  of  our  most  decided  objections 
to  this  scheme  of  sacramental  grace  (paradoxical  as  it  may 
seem)  that,  really  and  truly,  there  is  not  enough  of  import 
in  it  to  save  the  meaning  of  the  rite.  The  grace  is  words 
only,  and  an  air  of  imposture  is  all  that  remains  after  the 
words  are  explained.  The  rite  is  fertile  only  in  maintain¬ 
ing  a  superstition.  Practically  speaking,  it  only  exalts  a 
prerogative.  By  a  motion  of  his  hand  the  priest  breaks  in, 
to  interrupt  and  displace  all  the  laws  of  character  in  life — 


96 


THE  ORGANIC  UNITY 


communicating  an  abrupt,  ictic  grace,  as  much  wider  of  all 
dignity  and  reason  than  any  which  the  new-light  theology 
has  asserted  as  the  regenerative  power  is  more  subject  to 
a  human  dispensation.  A  superstitious  homage  collects 
about  his  person.  The  child  looks  on  him  as  one  who  opens 
heaven  by  a  ceremony !  The  ungodly  parent  hurries  to 
him,  to  get  the  regenerative  grace  for  his  dying  child.  The 
bereaved  parent  mourns  inconsolably,  and  even  curses  him¬ 
self  that  he  neglected  to  obtain  the  grace  for  his  child  now 
departed.  The  priest,  in  the  eye,  displaces  the  memory 
of  duty  and  godliness  in  the  heart.  A  thousand  supersti¬ 
tions,  degrading  to  religion  and  painful  to  look  upon,  hang 
around  this  view  of  baptism.  Not  to  produce  them,  the 
doctrine  must  yield  up  its  own  nature. 

In  all  this,  I  speak  constructively,  as  reasoning  from  the 
doctrine  asserted,  and  as  I  am  able  to  understand  it.  Con¬ 
structive  results  are  never  more  than  partially  verified  by 
historic  facts;  for  great  truths,  blended  with  the  error, 
qualify  and  mitigate  its  effects. 

Now  the  true  conception  is  that  baptism  is  applied  to 
the  child  on  the  ground  of  its  organic  unity  with  the  par¬ 
ents;  imparting  and  pledging  a  grace  to  sanctify  that  unity, 
and  make  it  good  in  the  field  of  religion.  By  the  supposi¬ 
tion,  however,  the  child  still  remains  within  the  known  laws 
of  character  in  the  house,  to  receive,  under  these,  whatever 
good  may  reach  him;  not  snatched  away  by  an  abrupt, 
fantastical,  and  therefore  incredible  grace.  He  is  taken 
to  be  regenerate,  not  historically  speaking,  but  presump¬ 
tively,  on  the  ground  of  his  known  connection  with  the 
parent  character,  and  the  divine  or  church  life,  which  is 
the  life  of  that  character.  Perhaps  I  shall  be  understood 
more  easily  if  I  say  that  the  child  is  potentially  regenerate, 


OF  THE  FAMILY 


97 


being  regarded  as  existing  in  connection  with  powers  and 
causes  that  contain  the  fact,  before  time  and  separate  from 
time.  For  when  the  fact  appears  historically,  under  the 
law  of  time,  it  is  not  more  truly  real,  in  a  certain  sense, 
than  it  was  before.  And  then  the  grace  conferred,  being 
conferred  by  no  casual  act,  but  resting  in  the  established 
laws  of  character,  in  the  church  and  the  house,  is  not  lost 
by  unfaithfulness,  but  remains  and  lingers  still,  though 
abused  and  weakened,  to  encourage  new  struggles. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  doctrine  of  organic  unity 
I  have  been  asserting,  proves  its  theologic  value  as  a  ready 
solvent  for  the  rather  perplexing  difficulties  of  this  difficult 
subject.  Only  one  difficulty  remains,  viz.,  that  so  few  can 
believe  the  doctrine. 

3.  It  is  evident  that  the  voluntary  intention  of  parents, 
in  regard  to  their  children,  is  no  measure,  either  of  their 
merit  or  their  sin.  Few  parents  are  so  base,  or  so  lost  to 
natural  affection,  as  really  to  intend  the  injury  of  their 
children.  However  irreligious,  or  immoral,  they  more  com¬ 
monly  desire  a  worthy  and  correct  character  for  their  chil¬ 
dren,  often  even  a  Christian  character.  But,  in  the  great 
and  momentous  truth  now  set  forth,  you  perceive  it  is  not 
what  you  intend  for  your  children  so  much  as  what  you  are, 
that  is  to  have  its  effect.  They  are  connected,  by  an  or¬ 
ganic  unity,  not  with  your  instructions,  but  with  your  life. 
And  your  life  is  more  powerful  than  your  instructions  can 
be.  They  might  be  jealous  of  intended  corruption,  and 
withstand  it;  but  the  spirit  of  the  house,  which  is  your  spirit, 
the  whole  working  of  the  house,  which  is  actuated  by  you, 
is  what  no  exercise  of  will,  even  if  they  had  more  of  it  than 
they  have,  could  well  resist.  Therefore,  what  you  are, 
they  will  almost  necessarily  be;  and  then,  as  you  are  re- 


98 


THE  ORGANIC  UNITY 


sponsible  for  what  you  are,  you  must  also  be  responsible 
for  the  ruin  brought  on  them.  And,  if  you  desired  better 
things  for  them,  as  you  probably  say,  the  more  guilty  are 
you  that,  knowing  and  desiring  better  things,  you  thwarted 
your  desires  by  your  own  evil  life. 

So  there  are  Christians  who  intend  and  do  many  things 
for  their  children,  and  thus  acquit  themselves  of  all  blame 
in  regard  to  their  character.  Here,  alas!  is  the  perpetual 
error  of  Christian  parents,  so  called,  that  they  endeavor 
to  make  up,  by  direct  efforts,  for  the  mischiefs  of  a  loose 
and  neglectful  life.  They  convince  themselves  that  teach¬ 
ing,  lecturing,  watch,  discipline,  things  done  with  a  pur¬ 
pose,  are  the  sum  of  duty.  As  if  mere  affectations  and  will- 
works  could  cheat  the  laws  of  life  and  character  ordained 
by  God !  Your  character  is  a  stream,  a  river,  flowing  down 
upon  your  children,  hour  by  hour.  What  you  do  here  and  J 
there  to  carry  an  opposing  influence  is,  at  best,  only  a  rip-/ 
pie  that  you  make  on  the  surface  of  the  stream.  It  reveals 
the  sweep  of  the  current;  nothing  more.  If  you  expect 
your  children  to  go  with  the  ripple,  instead  of  the  stream, 
you  will  be  disappointed.  I  beseech  you  then,  as  you  love 
your  children,  to  admit  other  and  worthier  thoughts, 
thoughts  more  safe  for  them  and  certainly  for  you.  Un¬ 
derstand  that  it  is  the  family  spirit,  the  organic  life  of  the 
house,  the  silent  power  of  a  domestic  godliness,  working, 
as  it  does,  unconsciously  and  with  sovereign  effect — this  it 
is  which  forms  your  children  to  God.  And,  if  this  be  want¬ 
ing,  all  that  you  may  do  beside,  will  be  as  likely  to  annoy 
and  harden  as  to  bless. 

4.  It  seems  to  be  a  proper  inference  from  the  doctrine 
I  have  exhibited,  that  Christian  parents  ought  to  speak 
freely  to  their  children,  at  times,  of  their  own  faults  and 


OF  THE  FAMILY 


99 


infirmities.  If  they  are  faithful,  if  they  live  as  Christians, 
if  the  spirit  of  Christ  bears  rule  in  the  house,  they  will  yet 
have  faults,  and  they  ought  to  make  no  secret  of  the  fact. 
The  impression  should  be  made,  that  they  themselves  are 
struggling  with  infirmities;  that  they  are  humbled  under 
a  sense  of  these  infirmities;  that  there  is  much  in  them  for 
God  to  pardon,  much  for  their  children  to  overlook,  or  even 
to  forgive;  and  that  God  alone  can  assist  them  to  lead 
themselves  and  their  family  up  to  a  better  world.  Instead 
of  lecturing  their  children,  always,  on  their  peccadilloes  and 
sins,  it  would  be  better,  sometimes,  to  give  a  lecture  on 
their  own.  This,  if  rightly  done,  would  attract  the  friendly 
sympathy  of  their  children,  guard  them  against  the  injuri¬ 
ous  impressions  they  make  when  they  trip  themselves,  and 
unite  the  whole  family  in  a  common  struggle  heavenward. 
There  is  no  other  way  to  correct  the  mixture  of  evil  you 
will  blend  with  the  family  spirit,  but  to  deplore  it,  and  make 
it  an  acknowledged  truth,  that  you,  too,  are  only  a  child  in 
goodness.  But  if  you  take  a  throne  of  papal  infallibility 
in  your  family,  and  endeavor  to  fight  out,  with  the  rod, 
what  you  fail  in  by  your  misconduct,  you  may  make  your 
children  fear  you  and  hate  you,  but  you  will  not  win  them 
to  Christ.  Alas!  there  are  too  many  Christian  families 
that  are  only  little  popedoms.  The  rule  itself  is  tyranny 
— infallibility  assumed,  then  maintained,  by  the  holy  in¬ 
quisition  of  terror  and  penal  chastisement!  God  will  not 
smile  on  such  a  kind  of  discipline. 

5.  It  is  evident  what  rule  should  regulate  the  society  and 
external  intercourse  of  children.  It  is  a  very  great  mercy, 
as  I  have  said,  that  the  children  of  a  bad  or  irreligious 
family  are  sometimes  permitted  to  be  inmates  elsewhere; 
to  go  into  virtuous  and  Christian  families,  where  a  better 


100 


THE  ORGANIC  UNITY 


spirit  reigns.  There  they  see,  perhaps,  the  genuine  demon¬ 
strations  of  order,  of  purity,  and  of  good  affections;  they 
hear  the  voice  of  prayer,  they  come  where  the  spirit  of 
heaven  breathes.  It  is  a  new  world,  and  they  are  filled  with 
new  impressions.  So,  if  a  child  may  go  to  a  school  where 
order,  right  principle,  virtuous  manners,  and  the  love  of 
knowledge  reign,  and  find  a  respite  there  from  the  shiftless¬ 
ness,  vice,  and  brutality  at  home,  how  great  is  the  privilege ! 
In  this  view,  a  good  school  is  almost  the  only  mercy  that 
can  be  extended  to  the  hapless  sons  and  daughters  of 
vice.  Their  good — most  dismal  thought ! — is  to  be  deliv¬ 
ered  from  their  home;  to  escape  the  spirit  of  hell  that  en¬ 
compasses  their  helpless  age,  and  feel,  though  it  be  but  a 
few  hours  a  day,  the  power  of  another  spirit ! 

But  I  was  speaking  of  the  rule  to  be  observed  in  the  soci¬ 
ety  of  children.  Let  every  Christian  beware  how  he  makes 
his  children  inmates  in  an  irreligious  family.  It  will  do, 
sometimes,  to  allow  the  children  of  an  irreligious  family  to 
be  inmates,  temporarily,  in  your  own.  You  may  do  it 
for  their  advantage;  and  if  you  can  enlist  the  hearts  of 
your  children  in  the  merciful  intentions  you  cherish,  it  may 
even  be  a  good  exercise  for  them.  But  it  is  a  very  differ¬ 
ent  thing  to  place  your  children  within  the  atmosphere  of 
another  house.  Send  them  not  where  the  spirit  of  evil 
reigns.  Understand  how  plastic  their  nature  is,  how  easily 
it  receives  the  contagion  of  another  spirit.  You  yourselves 
may  have  intercourse  with  ungodly  persons;  it  may  be  your 
duty  to  seek  it  for  their  benefit;  but  you  may  well  be  cau¬ 
tious  how  far  you  subject  your  children,  especially  in  early 
years,  to  the  intercourse  of  irreligious  families. 

And  what  shall  I  say  to  parents,  who  are  themselves 
irreligious?  Perhaps  you  make  it  your  boast  that  you  give 


OF  THE  FAMILY 


101 


your  children  their  liberty;  that  you  mean  to  allow  them 
to  be  just  as  religious  as  they  please.  And  is  that  enough, 
do  you  think,  to  discharge  your  duties  to  them?  Is  it 
enough  to  breathe  the  spirit  of  evil  and  sin  into  them  and 
around  them  every  hour,  to  give  them  no  Christian  counsel, 
to  train  them  up  in  a  prayerless  house,  drill  them  into  con¬ 
formity  with  all  your  worldly  ways,  and  then  say  that  you 
allow  them  full  liberty  to  be  Christians?  Having  them 
under  your  law,  determining  yourselves  that  organic  spirit, 
which  is  to  be  the  element,  the  very  breath  of  their  moral 
existence,  will  you  then  boast  that  you  mean  to  allow  them 
to  be  as  virtuous  as  they  please  ?  Ah,  if  there  be  any  argu¬ 
ment  which  might  compel  you  to  be  Christians  yourselves 
it  is  these  arguments  of  affection  that  God  has  given  you. 
But  if  you  will  not  be  Christians  yourselves,  then,  at  least, 
showr  your  children  some  degree  of  mercy,  by  delivering 
them,  as  much  as  possible,  from  yourselves!  Send  them, 
as  often  as  you  may,  where  a  better  spirit  reigns.  Make 
them  inmates  with  Christian  families,  as  you  have  oppor¬ 
tunity.  Let  them  go  where  they  will  hear  a  prayer  and 
see  a  Christian  Sabbath.  Send  them,  or  take  them  with 
you,  to  the  church  of  God,  and  the  Sabbath-school.  Give 
them  a  respite  often  from  the  family  spirit  and  the  organic 
law  of  the  house.  If  you  yourselves  will  not  fashion  them 
for  the  skies,  let  others,  more  faithful  than  you,  and  more 
merciful,  do  it  for  you. 


V 


INFANT  BAPTISM,  HOW  DEVELOPED 

“For  the  promise  is  unto  you  and  to  your  children,  and  to  all  that  are 
afar  off,  even  as  many  as  the  Lord  our  God  shall  call.” — Acts  ii.  39. 

It  is  a  matter  of  wonder,  with  many  professed  disciples 
of  Jesus  in  our  time,  that  if  the  baptism  of  children  and 
their  qualified  introduction  into  the  church  is  any  genuine 
part  of  the  Christian  economy,  there  is  so  little  authority 
for  it,  by  express  mention  in  the  New  Testament  writings. 
And  yet,  over  opposite  to  this,  it  is  quite  as  fair  a  subject 
of  wonder  that  in  Peter’s  first  sermon,  on  the  day  of  Pente¬ 
cost,  when  addressing  only  the  adult  sinners  of  the  assem¬ 
bly,  in  terms  appropriate  to  their  age,  he  should  yet  have 
given  out,  as  it  were  unconsciously,  a  declaration  that  can 
signify  nothing  but  the  engagement  of  Christ,  in  his  new 
and  more  spiritual  economy,  to  identify  children  with  their 
parents,  even  as  they  had  been  identified  in  the  coarser  pro¬ 
visions  of  the  Old.  “To  you  and  to  your  children,”  says 
the  apostle,  and  here,  covertly  as  it  were  to  himself,  are  hid 
infant  baptism,  infant  church  relations  potentially  present 
but  as  yet  undeveloped,  even  in  what  may  be  fitly  called 
the  seed  sermon  of  the  Christian  church.  This  was  no  time 
to  be  thinking  of  infants,  or  children,  as  related  to  church 
polity;  probably  there  is  not  one  present  in  the  great  assem¬ 
bly.  It  will  be  soon  enough  to  settle  the  church  position 
of  children,  when  the  question  rises  practically  afterwards. 
These  converted  pilgrims,  Parthians,  Medes,  Elamites,  and 

strangers  of  all  names,  may  not  even  so  much  as  think  of 

102 


INFANT  BAPTISM,  HOW  DEVELOPED 


103 


the  question  till  they  reach  their  homes  again.  But  the 
language,  we  can  see,  is  Jewish;  language  of  promise,  or 
covenant,  only  with  a  Christian  addition — “And  to  them 
that  are  afar  off,  even  as  many  as  the  Lord  our  God  shall 
call  ” — and  Peter,  as  we  know,  did  not  really  come  into  the 
meaning  of  this  language  himself  till  years  after,  when  the 
great  sheet  let  down  from  heaven  three  times,  and  the  actual 
ministering  to  a  Gentile  convert,  showed  him  whither,  and 
how  far  off,  the  call  of  the  Lord  might  be  going,  in  these 
times,  to  run.  Let  it  not  surprise  us,  then,  that  the  facts 
of  infant  baptism,  and  of  infant  church  relations,  covered 
as  they  are  by  Peter’s  language  in  this  first  sermon,  are 
still  not  yet  developed,  even  to  himself — any  more  than  the 
fact  of  Christ’s  call  to  the  Gentiles. 

When  the  formula,  “believe  and  be  baptized,”  is  assumed 
to  be  absolutely  conclusive  and  final  on  the  question  of  in¬ 
fant  baptism  because  infants  can  not  believe,  we  have  only 
to  make  due  allowance  for  the  fact  that  Christianity  must 
needs  make  its  chief  address,  at  the  outset,  to  adult  per¬ 
sons,  and  the  argument  vanishes.  Christianity  will  of 
course  address  itself  to  the  subjects  addressed;  and,  telling 
them  what  they  must  do  to  be  saved,  it  will  not  of  course 
tell  them,  at  the  same  breath,  everything  else  that  is  fit  to 
be  known.  In  this  manner  its  language  was  naturally 
shaped,  for  a  considerable  time,  so  as  to  meet  only  the  con¬ 
ditions  of  adult  minds.  When  at  length  it  shall  begin  to 
be  inquired,  what  is  the  condition  of  immature,  or  infant 
minds?  it  will  be  soon  enough  to  say  something  appropri¬ 
ate  to  them. 

Besides,  the  formula  has  another  side — “He  that  believ- 
eth  not  shall  be  damned.”  Does  it  therefore  follow,  be¬ 
cause  it  is  so  continually  given  to  adults  as  the  fixed  law  of 


104 


INFANT  BAPTISM, 


salvation — he  that  believeth  shall  be  saved,  and  he  that 
believeth  not  shall  be  damned — that  infants  dying  in  in¬ 
fancy,  and  too  young  to  believe,  must  therefore  be  inevi¬ 
tably  damned?  No,  it  will  be  answered;  for  the  language 
referred  to  was  evidently  designed  only  for  adult  persons, 
and  is  of  course  to  be  qualified  so  as  to  meet  the  demands 
of  reason,  when  we  come  to  the  case  of  childhood.  And 
why  not  also  the  language  “  believe  and  be  baptized  ”  ? 
Say  not  that  the  child  is  not  old  enough  to  believe,  and 
therefore  can  not  be  baptized.  If  he  is  not  old  enough  to 
believe,  how  can  he  better  be  saved?  Is  it  a  greater,  and 
higher,  and  more  difficult  thing  to  be  admitted  to  baptism 
than  to  be  admitted  to  eternal  glory? 

Now  I  can  most  readily  admit  that  the  subject  of  infant 
baptism  is  not  as  definitely  mentioned  and  formally  pre¬ 
scribed  in  the  New  Testament,  as  we  might,  without  any 
great  extravagance,  expect.  For  many  will  never  notice 
how  great  a  thing  it  is  for  Christianity  to  pass  from  the  first 
stage  of  mere  propagation  to  the  stage  of  a  fixed  institu¬ 
tion.  What  worlds  of  modification,  correction,  new  arrange¬ 
ment  are  necessary  to  the  transition  they  have  never  ob¬ 
served.  They  see  the  real  figure  of  Christianity  in  the  day 
of  Pentecost,  having  never  a  conception,  it  may  be,  that 
this  figure  is  most  intensely  occasional  and  casual,  and  the 
whole  scene  one  that  has  scarcely  a  vestige  of  Christian  in¬ 
stitution  in  it.  • 

What  I  propose,  then,  is  to  go  over  some  of  the  incidents 
of  this  Pentecostal  scene  and  show  you  how  it  will  drop 
out  one  point  after  another,  as  Christianity  becomes  a  fixed 
institution;  which  institutional  character,  again,  will,  by 
a  necessary  law,  bring  in  other  elements  whereby  to  shape 
itself  and  complete  its  organization. 


HOW  DEVELOPED 


105 


First  of  all,  we  are  delighted  here  at  the  picture  given  of 
a  new  form  of  society,  and  a  thing  so  beautiful,  so  wonder¬ 
fully  hopeful  and  peculiar,  we  are  ready  to  think  must  be 
the  very  essence  of  the  new  institution  itself.  “And  all 
that  believed  were  together  and  had  all  things  common; 
and  sold  their  possessions  and  goods  and  parted  them  to 
all  men,  as  every  man  had  need.  And  they,  continuing 
with  one  accord  in  the  temple  and  breaking  bread  from 
house  to  house,  did  eat  their  meat  with  gladness  and  single¬ 
ness  of  heart,  praising  God  and  having  favor  with  all  the 
people.  And  the  Lord  added  to  the  church  daily  such  as 
should  be  saved.”  What  a  picture,  taken  as  a  mere  exter¬ 
nal  description !  Saying  nothing  of  internal  experiences  it 
goes  to  the  simple  outward  demonstrations,  and  by  these  it 
paints  the  spring-time,  or  first  blossoming  of  the  Christian 
love.  The  beauty  of  the  scene  consists  in  the  fact,  that  the 
disciples  hardly  know,  as  yet,  what  their  love  signifies. 
Assembled  as  pilgrims,  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  the 
Christian  love  has  fallen  upon  them,  and  they  find,  what  is 
altogether  new  and  strange,  that  rich  and  poor,  honorable 
and  base,  despite  of  all  distinctions,  they  love  one  another 
as  brethren !  Not  knowing  what  to  make  of  it,  or,  appar¬ 
ently,  whether  they  are  hereafter  to  have  anything  to  do 
but  to  love  one  another,  they  give  themselves  wholly  up 
to  love,  as  children  to  a  play — come  what  will,  they  are  all 
agreed  in  this,  that  they  want  only  fellowship  with  each 
other,  fellowship  in  doctrine,  fellowship  in  praise,  fellow¬ 
ship  in  bread, — and  why  not  also  in  goods  ? 

How  sad,  that  a  scene  so  amiable  and  lovely  could  not 
continue,  and  that  all  Christian  disciples,  to  the  end  of  the 
world,  could  not  fall  into  the  same  delightful  picture  in  their 
conduct !  Just  as  sad,  I  answer,  as  it  is  that  children  can 


106 


INFANT  BAPTISM, 


not  always  be  children;  for  these  are  the  children  of  love, 
acting  out  the  simple  instinct  of  love,  and  wholly  ignorant, 
as  yet,  of  the  cares,  labors,  and  confused  struggles  in  which 
their  Christian  spirit  is  to  have  its  trial.  Doubtless  we 
are  to  regret,  as  a  loss,  whatever  departure  we  may  have 
suffered  from  the  spirit  of  these  first  disciples;  for  the  spirit 
of  Christian  life  is  one  and  the  same,  in  all  diversities  of 
form  and  conduct.  But  it  is  plain  to  any  one  who  will 
exercise  the  least  consideration  that  it  was  just  as  impos¬ 
sible  to  perpetuate  these  first  demonstrations  as  it  is  to 
preserve  the  infantile  airs  of  children  after  childhood  is 
passed,  carrying  them  still  on  through  the  sturdy  toils  and 
cares  of  a  mature  age.  The  moment  we  leave  these  first 
scenes,  following  the  pilgrims  off  to  their  homes,  see  them 
entering  into  the  duties  of  home,  see  the  Christian  churches 
getting  body  and  form  in  so  many  places  and  becoming  in¬ 
corporated  as  fixed  elements  of  human  society,  we  shall 
discover  that  almost  all  the  modes  and  hospitalities  of  the 
Pentecostal  society  are  inevitably  discontinued. 

But  we  must  go  deeper  into  the  history  and  show,  by 
distinct  specification,  how  intensely  casual  much  that  be¬ 
longs  to  the  scene  of  the  Pentecost  was  even  designed  to 
be,  and  how  many  things  are  to  be  added  to  give  the  new 
gospel  a  permanently  instituted  life.  We  begin  with  the 
things  casual  that  were  designed  to  cease. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit  was  here  to  be  inaugu¬ 
rated,  as  a  Divine  Force,  entered  systematically  into  the 
world,  to  work  subjectively  in  men  all  the  characters  of 
love  and  beauty  that  are  shown  objectively  in  the  life  of 
Jesus.  He  is  to  be,  in  other  words,  a  perpetual  indwelling 
Christ  in  men’s  hearts.  In  times  more  ancient,  good  men 
had  been  wont  to  pray  for  spiritual  help  in  a  manner  cor- 


HOW  DEVELOPED 


107 


respondent,  but  now  the  kingdom  of  Help,  that  kingdom 
which  is  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost, 
is  to  be  set  up  as  a  Chris tly  dispensation.  But,  at  the  be¬ 
ginning,  there  must  be  something  done  before  the  senses 
to  waken  sensuous  impressions.  Otherwise,  whatever  power 
the  Spirit  might  exert  in  the  recesses  of  the  human  soul,  it 
would  probably  occur  to  no  one  to  refer  the  effects  wrought 
to  a  Divine  Agency.  Hence  the  wondrous  character  of 
the  scene,  which  here  bursts  upon  the  world — a  sound  from 
heaven,  a  rushing,  mighty  wind  sweeping  through  the  hall, 
lambent  tips  of  fire  resting  on  the  heads  of  the  assembly, 
wondrous  utterances  or  tongues. 

Now,  the  physical  incidents  of  this  scene  had  nothing  to 
do  with  its  substantial  import,  save  as  they  were  added  to 
suggest  the  idea  of  a  Divine  Agency.  They  hold  the  same 
mechanical  relation,  as  a  vehicle,  to  the  Spirit,  that  the 
human  nature  of  Jesus  held  to  the  Divine  Word.  They  are 
the  body,  the  sensible  show  of  the  Spirit,  the  smoke  by 
which  the  fire  was  revealed.  So  of  the  tongues.  They 
were  the  sign  of  a  power  that  was  playing  the  action  of  the 
inner  man,  and  making  audible,  as  it  were,  the  activity 
within,  of  a  Divine  Influence.  All  these,  like  the  miracu¬ 
lous  gifts  so  conspicuous  in  the  subsequent  history,  were 
manifestations  of  the  Spirit,  given  to  profit  withal;  but 
being  only  accidents  or  exponents,  were,  of  course,  to  be 
discontinued,  when  the  doctrine  of  a  spiritual  influence 
from  God  was  sufficiently  developed — discontinued  and 
never  restored,  unless  perhaps  in  cases  where  the  sense  of 
the  Spirit  is  so  nearly  lost  as  to  require  a  kind  of  new  de¬ 
velopment.  Accordingly  as  these  fall  off,  the  spiritual  in¬ 
fluence  inaugurated  by  such  tokens,  may  be  expected,  for 
much  the  same  reasons,  to  move  upon  the  world  in  a  less 


108 


INFANT  BAPTISM, 


imposing  method;  to  remit,  in  some  degree,  the  extraordi¬ 
nary,  and,  as  life  is  itself  ordinary,  become,  to  the  human 
spirit,  what  the  air  is  to  the  body — a  Perpetual  Element  of 
inbreathing  love;  to  dwell  in  the  families,  to  follow  the  in¬ 
dividual,  and  whisper  holy  thoughts  in  solitary  places  and 
silent  hours.  He  is  to  fill  the  world,  and  be  a  Spirit  of  Life 
and  love,  present  to  all  human  hearts.  He  will  produce  the 
same  exercises,  produced  in  the  first  disciples,  in  the  scene 
of  the  Pentecost.  Sometimes,  too,  he  will  glorify  himself 
in  scenes  of  social  effect  and  power.  But  the  grand  reality 
revealed  is  an  Abiding  Spirit — not  a  Scene  Spirit,  but  an 
Abiding  Spirit — accordantly  with  Christ’s  own  promise — 
“He  shall  give  you  another  Comforter,  that  he  may  abide 
with  you  forever.”  When  the  sound,  therefore,  which  then 
shook  the  air  is  hushed  to  be  heard  no  more;  when  the 
rushing,  mighty  wind  that  typified  so  powerfully  the  breath 
of  the  arriving  Spirit  of  God  has  dropped  into  calm;  when 
the  fire-tips  have  ceased  to  burn  on  the  heads  of  all  assem¬ 
blies,  and  all  the  Pentecostal  signs  are  over,  then  is  there 
seen  to  be  left  as  a  result  the  fixed  conviction  of  a  Jesus  un¬ 
localized,  a  Spirit  of  Jesus  present  in  all  places,  working  in 
all  hearts,  present,  in  conscious  manifestation,  to  all  dis¬ 
cerning  souls,  as  the  life  of  their  life.  How  very  casual,  in 
this  view,  is  the  scene  of  the  Pentecost.  And  that  is  very 
soon  discovered.  One  year  afterwards,  not  even  the  per¬ 
sons  present  in  that  scene  look  upon  it  as  being,  in  any  sense, 
a  properly  institutional  element  of  Christianity.  The 
Spirit  inaugurated  is  institutional,  the  life  of  all  holy  insti¬ 
tutions,  but  nothing  in  the  forms  of  the  scene  is  regarded  as 
having  a  perpetual  character. 

Again,  it  will  be  found  that  the  preaching  of  the  day  of 
Pentecost,  powerful  as  the  sermon  of  Peter  appears  to  have 


HOW  DEVELOPED 


109 


been  upon  the  assembly  at  that  time,  was  not  such,  either 
in  style  or  substance,  as  could  be  continued  after  the  first 
day  or  two  of  the  gospel  proclamation,  and  was  in  fact 
superseded,  in  a  very  short  time,  by  the  sturdier  methods 
of  argument  and  instruction.  We  see  this  in  all  the  epistles, 
and  as  truly  in  those  of  Peter  as  of  Paul.  The  infant 
churches  had  scarcely  begun  to  be  institutions,  before  this 
change  was  apparent. 

And  yet  we  have  many,  in  our  own  time,  who  do  not  ap¬ 
pear  to  see  this,  even  though  the  manner  of  Peter’s  sermon 
is  so  completely  gone  by,  that  one  can  hardly  imagine  how 
it  had  any  power  at  all.  “See,”  they  say,  “how  simple  it 
was,  how  easy  of  apprehension — nothing  but  a  recitation 
of  facts — and  then  what  power  it  had!”  As  if  the  telling, 
over  and  over,  of  old  news,  announcing  again  facts  that 
have  been  known  to  every  reader  of  the  New  Testament 
from  his  childhood  up,  as  familiarly  as  he  knows  his  right 
hand,  could  have  the  same  value  and  be  means  to  ends  for 
producing  the  same  effects !  Most  of  us  have  a  better  un¬ 
derstanding  of  the  subject,  perceiving,  as  clearly  as  possi¬ 
ble,  that  while  Peter’s  sermon  was  good  for  the  occasion,  it 
was  good  for  almost  no  occasion  since.  It  was  one  of  the 
first  things,  of  which  there  can  not,  by  the  supposition,  be 
many.  A  camp  meeting,  or  a  band  of  pilgrims  gathered  for 
a  single  week,  a  thousand  miles  from  home,  may  well  enough 
desire  such  kind  of  preaching  as  will  serve  the  zest  of  the 
occasion.  But  it  is  no  design  of  Christianity  to  get  by  the 
need  of  intelligence,  and  fashion  a  sanctity  that  has  no 
fellowship  with  dignity.  A  regularly  instituted  Christian 
congregation,  who  are  to  live  and  grow  up  on  the  same  spot, 
from  age  to  age,  it  has  long  ago  been  discovered,  must  be 
compelled  to  gird  up  the  loins  of  their  mind.  They  must 


110 


INFANT  BAPTISM, 


reject  the  mere  gospel  drinks  and  betake  themselves  to 
meat.  Their  life,  it  will  be  found,  depends,  not  on  scenes 
and  machineries,  not  on  storms  and  paroxysms;  but  on  a 
capacity  rather  to  receive  instruction,  to  be  exercised  in 
high  argument,  to  bear  with  patience  the  discovery  how  lit¬ 
tle  they  know;  and  on  a  good  healthful  appetite  for  Chris¬ 
tian  food.  To  be  able  to  burn  in  a  fire  decides  nothing. 
They  must  know  how  to  supply  the  fuel  of  devotion  out  of 
their  own  exercise  in  God’s  truth.  They  must  love  a  min¬ 
istry  of  doctrine,  or  intellectual  teaching.  Neither  is  it 
doctrine,  as  many  fancy,  when  they  complain  of  a  want  of 
doctrinal  preaching,  to  get  a  few  stale  dogmas  impounded 
in  the  head,  or  stuck  in  the  brain,  as  dead  flies  in  ointment : 
all  the  rich  treasures  of  thought,  and  high  motive,  and  solemn 
contemplation,  garnered  up  in  God’s  word,  must  be  brought 
out,  seen,  understood,  and  fall  upon  the  soul,  as  manna 
from  the  skies.  Like  manna,  too,  it  must  be  the  supply 
of  to-day  only.  A  new  shower  must  be  gathered  for  to¬ 
morrow,  and  the  mind  of  the  people  must  be  kept  in  active 
and  progressive  motion. 

Such  a  kind  of  preaching  will  feed  the  intelligence  of  the 
hearers,  and  raise  up  pillars  in  the  churches.  And  here  is 
the  great  distinction  between  the  preaching  proper  to  the 
scene  of  the  Pentecost,  and  that  of  an  established  Chris¬ 
tian  congregation.  It  is  the  difference  between  Peter,  giv¬ 
ing  news  to  the  pilgrims,  and  Paul  offering  some  “things 
hard  to  be  understood,”  to  churches  of  organized  disciples. 
Such  preaching  is  required,  in  an  established  congregation, 
as  will  exert  an  educating  power.  And  yet  it  will,  in  that 
way,  be  a  converting  power,  as  efficacious  as  any  other,  if 
only  it  is  expected  to  be.  When  the  community  is  more 
deeply  moved  by  spiritual  things,  it  will,  of  course,  vary  its 


HOW  DEVELOPED 


111 


tone  and  its  subjects  to  suit  the  occasion,  perhaps  multiply 
its  efforts;  but  never  as  being  in  a  hurry,  lest  the  grace  of 
the  occasion  may  be  capriciously  withdrawn,  never  over¬ 
preaching,  or  preaching  out,  as  if  nothing  were  to  be  done  be¬ 
thought  in  the  hearers,  but  all  by  the  power  of  a  commo¬ 
tion  round  them;  for  it  is  not  the  same  thing  to  fall  out  of 
dignity  and  self-possession  as  to  get  rid  of  sin,  neither  is  a 
fever  or  a  whirlwind  any  proper  instrument  of  sanctifica¬ 
tion.  Mournful  proofs  have  we  to  the  contrary.  Better 
is  it  to  reserve  a  power  for  the  ordinary,  even  when  we  are 
in  the  extraordinary.  It  is  not  wisdom  to  overwork  the 
harvest,  so  that  we  have  no  strength  left  for  the  bread. 
Rather  let  the  preacher  believe  in  the  Abiding  Spirit,  and 
count  upon  a  kind  of  perpetual  harvest.  Let  him  think 
to  gain  many  to  Christ  imperceptibly,  by  keeping  alive  the 
interest  of  God’s  truth,  and  letting  it  distil  upon  the  hearers 
as  a  dew,  and  through  them  on  the  rising  families.  What¬ 
ever  he  gains  in  this  wTay  will  assuredly  remain;  for  it  is 
not  the  birth  of  an  occasion,  but  of  quiet  conviction.  It 
partakes  the  nature  of  habit.  It  is  the  fruit  of  a  godly  train¬ 
ing.  Seldom,  therefore,  will  it  fall  away,  or  disappoint  ex¬ 
pectation. 

There  is  yet  another  class  of  incidents,  or  demonstrations, 
in  the  scene  of  the  Pentecost,  which  are  referable  to  the  fact 
that  these  first  converts  are  not  at  home,  and  all  these  must, 
of  course,  be  modified,  or  discontinued  by  their  simple  re¬ 
turn.  They  are  pilgrims  at  the  feasts;  Parthians,  Medes, 
Elamites — Jewish  emigrants,  who  have  returned  from  every 
most  distant  clime  of  the  world,  to  enjoy  the  great  festivals 
of  their  religion. 

Their  property,  their  business,  and,  more  commonly, 
their  families,  are  left  behind.  Many  of  them  are  poor 


112 


INFANT  BAPTISM, 


persons,  wholly  unable  to  support  the  expense  even  of  a 
short  stay  at  Jerusalem.  The  others  can  not,  of  course, 
leave  them  to  suffer.  So  they  divide  their  resources  with 
the  poor;  and  some,  who  belong  at  Jerusalem,  are  moved 
by  the  overflowing  love  of  Christ  in  their  hearts,  to  part 
with  their  whole  property,  that  they  may  relieve  the  neces¬ 
sities  of  the  brotherhood.  Only  a  few  days  or  weeks  are 
thus  spent  together.  Probably,  within  three  months,  they 
are,  every  man,  at  home  in  his  own  house,  providing  for  his 
own  family,  out  of  the  increase  of  his  own  industry  and 
property.  During  their  short  stay  at  Jerusalem,  they  had 
nothing  to  do  but  to  exercise  their  religion.  Accordingly 
they  gave  themselves  wholly  up  to  it.  Now  the  religious 
occasion  is  past;  the  extraordinary  is  over,  and  the  ordi¬ 
nary  has  returned.  By  this  time,  they  have  learned,  prob¬ 
ably,  and  received  it  even  as  a  Christian  maxim,  that  one 
who  does  not  provide  for  ins  own,  denies  the  faith,  and  is 
worse  than  an  infidel. 

Again,  these  first  disciples  had  not  yet  been  called  to 
blend  their  piety  with  the  common  cares  and  duties  of  life. 
Quite  likely,  they  did  not,  for  some  time,  consider  whether 
they  should  hereafter  have  any  thing  more  to  do  with  these 
gross  and  earthly  callings.  But  we,  at  least,  have  learned 
what  they  must  also  have  learned  very  soon,  that  though 
we  can  not  live  by  bread  alone,  it  is  yet  difficult  to  live 
without  bread.  We  have  learned  that  the  very  church  of 
God  itself  is  perpetuated,  in  part,  by  industry  and  produc¬ 
tion,  that  it  can  not  live  by  expenditure,  that  we  have  some¬ 
thing  therefore  to  do,  besides  breaking  bread  from  house 
to  house;  six  days  to  labor,  a  spectacle  of  thrift  to  present 
to  mankind,  as  a  proof  that  Christian  virtue  has  its  bless¬ 
ings.  We  must  shine  as  good  citizens,  neighbors,  parents, 


HOW  DEVELOPED 


113 


friends.  Life  is  no  mere  camp-meeting  scene;  but  the 
greatest  of  all  Christian  attainments,  we  find,  is  precisely 
that  which  the  first  disciples  had  not  yet  thought  of,  the 
learning  how  to  blend  the  spiritual  and  economical  or  in¬ 
dustrial  together;  to  live  in  the  world,  and  not  be  of  it;  to 
labor  in  earthly  things,  and  maintain  a  conversation  in 
heaven;  to  unite  thrift  with  charity,  and  separate  gain 
from  greediness;  to  use  property  and  not  worship  it;  to 
prepare  comfort,  without  pursuing  pleasure.  For  it  is  by 
just  this  kind  of  trial,  that  all  spiritual  strength  is  gotten, 
and  the  Christian  life  becomes  a  light  to  men. 

Having  glanced,  in  this  manner,  at  some  of  the  types 
and  conditions  of  the  scene  of  Pentecost  that  were,  and  were 
inevitably  to  be,  discontinued,  let  us  notice  briefly,  some  of 
the  matters  that  must  also  as  inevitably  be  added  in  the 
process  by  which  Christianity  becomes  an  institution. 

Thus,  first  of  all,  as  Christ  and  his  evangelists  had  given 
the  new  facts  to  the  world,  so  it  was  inevitable  that  a  grand 
process  of  thinking  or  mental  elaboration  should  begin  to 
work  out  the  import  or  doctrinal  interpretation  of  those  facts. 
In  this  process,  diverse  opinions,  formulas,  sects,  contro¬ 
versies,  must  be  developed — consequently  new  modes  of 
duty. 

The  simplicity  of  mere  love,  displayed,  as  it  was,  in  the 
first  scenes  of  the  gospel,  could  not  continue,  however  de¬ 
sirable  it  may  seem.  Men  must  think,  as  well  as  love,  and 
thought  must  make  its  inroads  on  mere  relations  of  feeling. 
And  thus  a  long  process  of  forming  and  reforming  must  go 
on,  till  the  Christ  of  the  head  becomes  as  catholic  as  the 
Christ  of  the  heart.  Meantime,  all  must  stand  for  the 
truth,  and  there  must  be  no  countenance  given  to  error. 


114 


INFANT  BAPTISM, 


The  happy  days  of  Christian  childhood  are  left  far  behind, 
and  every  church  is  set  in  relations  of  duty  that  are  partly 
antagonistic.  It  must  take  a  form  required  by  its  new 
necessities.  What  to  do  for  the  truth,  whom  to  acknowl¬ 
edge,  when  to  resist  and  when  to  forbear,  how  much  conse¬ 
quence  to  attribute  to  opinions,  over  what  errors  to  spread 
the  mantle  of  charity,  how  to  maintain  a  polemic  attitude 
in  the  unity  of  the  Spirit — these  are  the  grave  questions 
that  are  to  occupy  ministers  and  churches  and  in  the  right 
exercise  of  which  they  are  to  justify  their  Christian  name. 
And  on  this  will  depend  the  power  of  religion,  quite  as  much 
as  on  the  duties  done  to  those  who  are  aliens  and  unbeliev¬ 
ers. 

Next  we  pass  on  to  a  field  where  the  new  creating  power 
of  the  gospel  is  displayed  yet  more  distinctly.  The  first 
disciples  had  no  thought  but  to  swim  in  the  strange  joy 
they  felt,  as  forgiven  of  God  and  filled  with  the  love  of  Jesus. 
Of  Christianity,  as  a  fixed  institution,  taking  the  whole 
society  of  man  into  its  bosom,  and  becoming  the  school  of 
the  race,  they  had  probably,  at  first,  no  conception.  Pass¬ 
ing  thence  to  the  modern  Christian  faith,  how  great  isjthe 
change !  What  a  variety  of  means,  instruments  and  ar¬ 
rangements  has  it  created,  maintaining  all  from  age  to  age, 
by  a  sacrifice  compared  with  which  the  casual  contribu¬ 
tions  to  poor  saints  at  Jerusalem  were  far  less  significant 
in  their  effects,  and,  perhaps,  not  more  to  be  commended, 
as  proofs  of  a  Christian  spirit. 

First,  a  house  of  worship;  and,  in  order  to  this,  the  new 
spiritual  life  must  become  a  holder  of  real  estate,  and  be 
acknowledged  as  such  in  the  laws.  To  make  the  place 
worthy  of  the  cause,  genius  and  taste  are  to  be  called  into 
exercise,  and  a  new  Christian  art  developed. 


HOW  DEVELOPED 


115 


To  maintain  expenses  and  repairs,  and  collect  and  dis¬ 
burse  charities,  there  must  be  officers  created,  such  as  dea¬ 
cons  and  committees  of  various  kinds,  and  this  requires 
elections,  by-laws,  records,  and  a  fully  organized  institu¬ 
tional  state. 

Mere  forms  and  sacraments  being  insufficient,  preachers 
of  the  word  must  be  carefully  trained  for  the  service,  and 
installed  therein,  to  feed  the  intelligence  of  the  flock,  and 
lead  them  in  the  truth.  Their  official  rights  and  duties 
must  be  ascertained,  and,  correspondingly,  the  rights  and 
duties  of  the  flock — matters  all  how  distant  from  the  scene 
of  the  Pentecost ! 

The  times  and  forms  of  worship  need  to  be  settled;  for, 
whether  a  liturgy  is  used  or  not,  no  organic  action  can  be 
maintained  without  forms  of  some  kind,  to  serve  as  laws  of 
concert  and  rules  of  order. 

Christian  music,  as  a  new  art,  must  be  created,  and  the 
children  and  youth  must  be  trained  therein,  so  that  all  may 
bear  their  part  in  the  worship,  and  the  worship  exercise  and 
inspire  a  devout  feeling  in  all. 

There  must  be  a  punctual  and  regular  attendance  some¬ 
how  established  and  made  obligatory;  for  the  habit  of  wor¬ 
ship  is  necessary  to  its  value,  as  a  power  over  character. 
Hence  there  must  be  a  common  responsibility — all  must  be 
enlisted.  There  must  be  a  church  spirit,  and,  in  order  to 
this,  a  fraternal  spirit  in  the  members,  verified  by  mutual 
sympathy  and  aid  under  the  common  burdens  of  life — a  kind 
of  service,  I  will  add,  which  is  often  far  more  beneficent  than 
a  community  of  goods  would  be;  for  this  latter  might  be  only 
a  premium  given  to  idleness,  while  the  other  is  but  a  good 
encouragement  to  the  ingenuous  struggles  of  industry. 
There  must,  however,  be  some  Christian  provision  for  the 


116  INFANT  BAPTISM, 

poor,  that  they  also  may  have  their  part  in  the  Christian 
flock,  and  the  blessings  of  charity  descend  upon  it  and 
dwell  in  it. 

Nor  is  the  article  of  dress,  in  a  Christian  assembly,  too 
insignificant  to  be  a  subject  of  care.  Probably  no  one  had 
a  thought  of  this  in  the  Pentecostal  assembly;  but  we  find 
the  apostles,  not  long  after,  giving  serious  lectures  to  the 
disciples  upon  their  dress.  Dress  and  manners,  manners 
and  morals,  morals  and  piety,  are  all  connected  by  an  inti¬ 
mate  or  secret  law.  A  people,  therefore,  who  are  careful 
to  appear  before  God,  in  a  well-chosen,  modest,  and  ap¬ 
propriate  dress — one  that  is  neither  careless  nor  ostentatious, 
one  that  indicates  sobriety,  neatness,  good  sense,  and  a  de¬ 
sire  to  be  approved  of  God  more  than  to  be  seen  of  men — 
will  avoid  barbarous  improprieties  of  every  sort.  Their 
manner  will  express  reverence  to  God.  What  they  express 
they  will  be  likely  to  feel;  and  if  they  become  true  disciples 
of  Christ,  as  there  is  greater  reason  to  hope,  their  manner 
will  have  a  nicer  propriety,  and  their  whole  demeanor  will 
be  more  thoughtful,  consistent,  and  lovely. 

It  may,  by  and  by,  become  evident  that,  in  order  to  main¬ 
tain  the  full  power  of  religion,  and  to  gain  the  neglected 
youth  or  children,  and  such  children  as  would  grow  up 
otherwise  in  the  power  of  vice,  a  parish  school  must  be  in¬ 
stituted,  as  in  Scotland,  in  connection  with  every  church. 
And  then,  at  a  much  later  day,  it  may  become  evident  that 
Sunday-schools  require  to  be  instituted  in  the  same  way, 
and  that  these,  enlisting  the  more  capable  and  devoted  of 
the  churches  in  Christian  studies,  and  good  works — works, 
that  is,  of  teaching  and  attention  to  the  poor — are  finally 
regarded  everywhere,  though  wholly  unknown  to  the  apos¬ 
tles  and  the  Pentecostal  assembly,  as  being  among  the  best 


HOW  DEVELOPED  117 

means  for  the  training  of  a  practically  Christian  character, 
and  the  gathering  in  of  the  outcast  families  to  God. 

So  far  we  proceed  without  difficulty;  all  these  things, 
though  never  preached  by  apostles,  must  finally  come,  we 
perceive,  as  outgrowths  of  the  Christian  church.  Pente¬ 
costal  incidents  will  disappear,  and  these  will  as  certainly 
grow  apace  in  their  time. 

But  the  particular  point  for  which  I  have  drawn  this 
sketch  has  been  purposely  left  behind.  Infant  baptism, 
the  relation  of  the  seminal  and  undeveloped  first  period  of 
human  existence  to  Christ  and  his  flock,  that  which  appears 
only  implicitly  in  the  sermon  of  Peter,  on  the  day  of  Pente¬ 
cost — where  is  this,  and  what  is  to  come,  in  the  way  of  de¬ 
velopment,  here?  There  was  no  reason,  or  even  room, 
among  the  scenes  of  the  Pentecost,  for  so  much  as  thinking 
on  this  subject  of  infants  and  their  church  relations,  and 
scarcely  more  for  a  considerable  time  afterward.  It  could 
not  become  a  subject  of  attention,  until  the  church  itself 
began  to  settle  into  forms  of  order  and  structural  organiza¬ 
tion;  and  how  soon  that  came  to  pass  we  do  not  definitely 
know.  It  should  therefore  be  no  subject  of  wonder  that 
infant  baptism  figures  somewhat  indistinctly,  for  so  long  a 
time  at  least;  and  scarcely  more  that  it  shows  itself  only 
by  implication  and  a  kind  of  tacit  development,  for  a  brief 
time  afterward. 

Furthermore,  if  it  came  to  pass,  by  a  transference  of  Jew¬ 
ish  ideas  into  Christian  spheres,  Jewish  modes  and  condi¬ 
tions  into  the  Christian  order  and  economy — just  as  Peter’s 
Jewish  language,  when  he  said,  in  his  Pentecostal  speech, 
“to  you  and  to  your  children,”  finally  came  back  to  him  in 
its  Christian  power, — it  would  make  no  bold  and  staring 


118 


INFANT  BAPTISM, 


figure  anywhere.  If  the  Christian  teachers  looked  to  see 
all  the  better  mercies  of  the  old  economy  transferred  into 
the  Christian,  and  exalted  there  into  some  higher  and  more 
perfect  meaning,  we  ought  certainly  not  to  expect  any  de¬ 
bate,  or  anything  but  a  silent,  scarcely  conscious  flow  of 
transition,  when  infants  are  taken  to  be  with  their  parents, 
in  the  church,  the  covenant,  the  Christian  Israel  of  their 
faith.  And  in  just  this  way  the  defect  of  any  bold  declara¬ 
tions  on  the  subject  of  infant  baptism  in  the  writings  of  the 
New  Testament,  and  the  fact  that  it  appears  only  in  a  few 
historic  glimpses,  and  occasional  modes  of  speech  that  are 
subtle  implications  of  the  fact,  is  sufficiently  accounted  for. 

But  we  are  inquiring  after  the  mode  in  which  this  rite 
became  an  accepted  element  of  the  Christian  organization, 
and  a  part  of  the  church  practice,  as  we  certainly  know  that 
it  did  at  sometime  afterward.  Peter  probably  conceived  as 
little  what  his  language  might  infer  respecting  it,  as  he  cer¬ 
tainly  did  what  hidden  import  there  was  in  his  testimony, 
by  the  same  words  of  a  grace  to  the  Gentiles;  for  he  spoke 
in  prophetic  exaltation,  as  the  ancient  prophets  did,  not 
knowing  what  the  spirit  of  Christ  that  was  in  them  did 
signify.  But  suppose  one  of  these  adult  converts  at  the 
Pentecost  to  have  set  off,  after  the  few  happy  weeks  of  his 
sojourn  are  ended,  for  his  home  in  some  remote  region  of 
Arabia,  Parthia,  or  Greece.  He  carries  Christ  with  him,  he 
is  a  new  man,  filled  with  a  strange  joy,  burning  with  a 
strange,  all-sacrificing  love  to  the  cause  of  his  new  Master, 
and  to  every  sinner  of  mankind.  He  begins  to  preach  the 
Christ  he  loves  to  his  friends,  tells  them  all  he  knows  of  the 
new  gospel,  speaks  to  them  as  one  whom  Christ  has  endowed 
with  power  to  speak.  He  gathers  a  little  circle,  which  we 
may  call  a  church,  around  him,  perhaps  converts  a  little 


HOW  DEVELOPED 


119 


obscure  synagogue  into  a  church.  He  knows  that  he  him¬ 
self  was  baptized  as  a  token  of  his  faith,  and  he  has  heard,  a 
thousand  times  repeated,  Christ’s  word,  “he  that  believeth 
and  is  baptized,”  “except  a  man  be  born  of  water  and  of 
the  Spirit,”  and  he  does  not  scruple  to  baptize  all  his  new 
fellow  disciples.  Then  comes  the  question,  what  of  the 
families?  what  of  the  infants  we  have,  who  are  not  old 
enough  to  believe?  This,  on  the  supposition  that  he  had 
heard  nothing  of  infant  baptism  before  he  left  Jerusalem, 
which  may  or  may  not  be  true.  But  he  has  heard  the  whole 
story  of  Christ’s  life  many  times  over,  including  the  fact  of 
his  beautiful  interest  in  children,  and  his  declaration — “of 
such  is  the  kingdom.”  He  recollects  also  the  ancient  re¬ 
ligion  of  his  people,  how  it  identified  always  the  children 
with  the  fathers,  and  included  them  in  the  covenant  of  the 
fathers,  raising  doubtless  the  question,  whether  the  gospel 
in  its  nobler,  wider  generosity  and  completer  grace,  would 
fall  short  even  of  the  old  religion  in  its  tenderness  to  the 
family  affections,  and  its  provisions  for  the  religious  unity 
of  families.  And  just  here,  we  will  suppose,  the  words  of 
Peter  in  that  first  sermon  flash  on  his  recollection — “For 
the  promise  is  to  you  and  to  your  children.”  They  meant 
almost  nothing,  it  may  be,  when  they  were  spoken,  but  how 
full  and  clear  the  meaning  they  now  take.  It  is  like  a  reve¬ 
lation.  The  doubt  struggling  in  his  bosom  is  over,  the  ques¬ 
tion  is  settled.  “My  children,”  he  says,  “are  with  me,  one 
with  me  in  my  faith,  included  with  me  in  all  my  titles  and 
hopes,  and  as  I  came  in,  out  of  the  defilements  of  sin,  and 
was  baptized  in  token  of  my  cleansing,  so  too  are  they  to 
share  my  baptism  and  be  heirs  together  with  me  in  the 
grace  of  life.” 

Thus  instructed,  he  will  baptize  his  children,  and  make 


120 


INFANT  BAPTISM,  HOW  DEVELOPED 


his  religion  a  strictly  family  grace,  expecting  them  to  grow 
up  in  it;  others  also  consenting  with  him  in  the  same  con¬ 
clusion,  and  offering  their  children  to  God  in  the  same  man¬ 
ner.  And,  as  the  result,  they  will  no  more  be  Christians 
with  families,  but  Christian  families — all  together  in  the 
church  of  God.  In  this  manner  the  Pentecost  itself,  when 
the  seeds  that  are  in  it  are  developed,  will  almost  certainly 
issue  the  adult  baptism  there  begun,  the  baptism  of  the 
three  thousand,  in  the  common  baptism  of  the  house. 

And  here  we  have,  in  small,  just  what  would  most  natu¬ 
rally  take  place  in  the  development  of  Christianity  itself. 
Taken  as  connected  with  its  own  precedent  history  and 
preparations,  the  church  could  hardly  be  held  back  from 
infant  baptism,  except  by  some  specific  revelation. 


VI 


APOSTOLIC  AUTHORITY  OF  INFANT  BAPTISM 

“And  I  baptized  also  the  household  of  Stephanas.” — I  Corin¬ 
thians  i.  16. 

We  have  traced  the  conditions  under  which  infant  bap¬ 
tism  would  almost  certainly  be  developed.  But  we  do  not 
leave  the  question  here.  We  have  many  and  distinct  evi¬ 
dences  for  the  rite,  which  are  abundantly  decisive;  some 
from  the  nature  of  the  family  state,  some  from  the  New 
Testament,  and  some  from  the  subsequent  history  of  the 
church.  These  I  will  now  undertake  to  present  in  the 
briefest  manner  possible.  And 

1.  The  organic  unity  of  the  family  makes  a  ground  for 
it,  and  sets  it  in  terms  of  rational  respect.  The  child  that 
is  bom,  is  really  not  born,  in  the  higher  sense  of  that  term, 
till  he  has  breathed  a  long  time.  He  does  not  live  in  his 
own  will,  but  is  in  the  will  and  life  of  his  parents.  To  bring 
him  forward  into  his  own  will  and  responsibility  is  the 
problem  of  years.  He  is  in  the  matrix  still  of  parental  char¬ 
acter,  where  all  the  graces,  faiths,  prayers,  promises,  of  the 
parents  are  his  also.  He  lives  and  breathes  in  them,  and  is 
of  them,  almost  as  truly  as  they  are  of  themselves.  What 
we  call  the  house,  is  the  organic  life  that  grows  him  as  a 
mind  or  agent,  tempers  him,  works  him  into  his  habits, 
fashions  him  as  by  a  precedent  power,  to  be  born  and 
finally  take  dominion  of  himself.  Why  then  should  religion 

make  no  recognition  of  a  fact  so  profoundly  religious  ?  Why 

121 


122 


APOSTOLIC  AUTHORITY 


not  assume  that  the  child  is  just  where  he  is;  in  the  faith  of 
the  house,  to  grow  up  there  ?  It  would  even  be  a  supposi¬ 
tion  against  nature  to  suppose  that  he  will  not.  It  is  very 
true  that  he  may  not,  because  the  faith  of  the  house  is  no 
faith,  or  so  mixed  with  sense  and  passion  as  to  have  none 
of  the  true  power.  Still,  when  the  discipleship  is  assumed 
to  be  made  by  faith,  it  must  also  be  assumed  that,  being  so 
made,  it  will  have  all  the  power  of  faith,  shaping  the  parental 
life  in  the  molds  of  that  power,  and  just  as  certainly  includ¬ 
ing  or  inclosing  in  those  molds,  there  to  be  also  shaped,  the 
infant  life  of  the  offspring.  The  father  and  mother  are  not 
merely  a  man  and  a  woman,  but  they  are  a  man  and  woman 
having  children;  and  accordingly  it  is  the  father  and  mother, 
that  is,  the  man  and  woman  and  their  children,  that  are  to 
be  baptized. 

2.  It  is  precisely  this  great  fact  of  an  organic  unity  that 
is  taken  hold  of  and  consecrated,  in  the  field  of  religion,  by 
the  Abrahamic  and  other  family  covenants.  And  the 
whole  course  of  revelation,  both  in  the  Old  and  New  Testa¬ 
ment,  is  tinged  by  associations,  and  sprinkled  over  with  ex¬ 
pressions  that  recognize  the  religious  unity  of  families,  and 
the  inclusion  of  the  children  with  the  parents.  All  the 
promises  run — “to  you  and  to  your  children ”;  for  Peter’s 
language  here  is  only  an  inspired  transfer  and  reassertion 
of  the  Jewish  family  ideas  at  the  earliest  moment,  in  the 
field  of  Christianity  itself,  v,  It  recognizes  the  fact  that 
Christianity  is  just  what  we  know  it  to  be,  nothing  but  a 
continuation  and  fuller  development  of  the  old  religion.  It 
widens  out  the  scope  of  the  old  religion,  so  as  to  include  all 
nations,  even  as  the  prophets  foretold;  and  raises  all  the 
rites  and  symbols  into  a  higher  spiritual  sense,  as  they  were 
appointed  from  the  first  to  be  raised.  Taken  all  together. 


OF  INFANT  BAPTISM 


123 


the  old  and  the  new  constitute  a  perfect  whole  or  system, 
and  the  process  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  God’s  way  of 
developing  and  authenticating  a  universal  religion.  In  this 
universal  religion,  therefore,  we  are  to  look  for  the  continu¬ 
ance  onward  of  the  old  family  character  and  the  inclusive 
oneness  of  fathers  with  their  children.  The  only  difference 
will  be  that  the  oneness  will  be  raised  into  a  more  spiritual 
and  higher  sense,  just  as  every  thing  else  was  raised.  The 
children  are  thus  to  be  looked  upon  presumptively  as  believ¬ 
ing  in  the  faith,  and  regenerated  in  the  regeneration  of  the 
fathers.  And  here  again, 

3.  Circumcision  comes  to  our  aid,  as  another  and  dis¬ 
tinct  evidence.  For  it  was  given  to  be  “a  seal  of  the  right¬ 
eousness  of  faith,”  and  the  application  of  it,  as  a  seal,  to  in¬ 
fant  children,  involves  all  the  precise  difficulties — neither 
more  nor  less — that  are  raised  by  the  deniers  of  infant  bap¬ 
tism.  Let  the  point  here  made  be  accurately  understood. 
The  argument  is  not  that  infant  baptism  was  directly  sub¬ 
stituted  for  circumcision.  Of  this  there  is  no  probable  evi¬ 
dence.  Such  a  substitution  could  not  have  been  made 
without  remark,  discussion,  oppositions  of  prejudice,  and 
the  raising  of  contentions  that  would  have  required  distinct 
mention,  many  times  over,  in  the  apostolic  history.  But  the 
argument  is  this:  that  the  Jewish  mind  was  so  familiarized 
by  custom  wdth  the  notion  of  an  inclusive  religious  unity 
in  families  (partly  by  the  rite  of  circumcision)  that  Chris¬ 
tian  baptism,  being  the  seal  of  faith,  was  naturally  and  by  a 
kind  of  associational  instinct,  applied  over  to  families  in 
the  same  manner.  Not  to  have  made  such  an  application 
would  have  required  some  authoritative  interposition,  some 
dike  of  positive  hindrance,  to  turn  aside  the  current  of  Jew¬ 
ish  prepossessions.  And  if  there  had  risen  up,  somewhere, 


124 


APOSTOLIC  AUTHORITY 


a  man  to  ask,  where  is  the  propriety  of  applying  baptism, 
given  as  a  rite  for  believers,  to  infants,  who  we  certainly 
know  are  not  old  enough  to  believe?  he  could  not  even 
have  begun  to  raise  an  impression  by  it.  Was  not  circum¬ 
cision  given  to  Abraham  to  be  the  seal  of  faith?  and  has  it 
not  been  applied  from  his  time  down  to  the  present,  in  this 
way — applied  to  infant  children  eight  days  old  ?  True  it  is 
the  doctrine  of  Christ,  “he  that  believeth  and  is  baptized 
shall  be  saved,”  and  our  apostles  too  are  saying,  “if  thou  be- 
lievest  with  all  thy  heart  thou  mayest.”  So  we  all  say  and 
think,  as  relating  to  adult  persons;  but  do  we  not  all  know 
that  what  is  given  to  the  father  includes  the  children,  and 
that  his  faith  is  the  faith  of  the  house  ?  Nothing,  in  short, 
is  plainer  than  that  every  argument  raised  to  convict  infant 
baptism  of  absurdity,  holds,  in  the  same  manner,  as  con¬ 
victing  circumcision  of  absurdity,  and  all  the  religious  polity 
of  the  former  ages.  Every  such  argument,  too,  mocks  the 
religious  feeling  and  conviction  of  all  these  former  ages,  in 
a  way  of  disrespect  equally  presumptuous. 

It  is  very  true,  as  declared  by  the  apostle  Paul,  in  his 
epistle  to  the  Romans,  that  circumcision,  seal  of  faith  as  it 
was,  did  not  always  have  its  meaning  fulfilled;  “for  all  are 
not  Israel  that  are  of  Israel.”  Esau  and  Edom,  his  poster¬ 
ity,  became,  thus,  an  apostate  race;  and  this,  in  a  certain 
sense,  by  Providential  appointment.  But  the  scope  of  God’s 
providential  purpose,  as  every  intelligent  Christian  ought 
to  know,  does  not  correspond  with  the  scope  of  his  grace 
or  the  measures  of  his  gifts  and  promises.  For  the  Provi¬ 
dential  plan  takes  in  all  the  perversities  of  human  action, 
while  the  grace-plan  or  promise  corresponds  with  the  aims 
and  measures  of  God’s  paternal  goodness.  He  means  and 
offers,  in  other  words,  more  than  human  perversity  will  take; 


OF  INFANT  BAPTISM 


125 


gives  a  presumption  of  good,  on  his  part,  which  he  knows 
that  human  wrongs  will  not  allow  to  be  actualized.  Then, 
as  his  Providential  purposes  and  plan  are  graduated  to  what 
will  actually  be,  not  to  what  he  means,  wishes,  and  prom¬ 
ises,  it  follows  that  the  facts  or  issues  of  his  Providential 
order  do  not  answer  to  the  scope  of  his  gracious  intention. 
And  thus  it  comes  to  pass  that,  while  he  gives  a  seal  of  faith, 
which  ought  to  be  answered  by  a  result  in  which  all  are 
Israel  that  are  of  Israel,  the  fact  is  different.  Had  Israel 
ruled  his  house  as  he  ought,  had  Rebekah  been  an  honest 
woman,  loving  both  her  sons  impartially,  and  seeking  the 
true  welfare  of  both — not  conspiring  with  one  to  rob  and 
cheat  the  other — Esau  might  have  been  a  different  man, 
and  Edom  might  have  been  a  family  of  Israel.  In  circum¬ 
cision,  as  a  seal  of  faith,  God  gave,  on  his  part,  the  pledge 
and  presumption  that  so  it  should  be.  But  Edom  was 
thrown  off  into  apostasy  by  courses  of  human  perversity 
that  disappointed  the  seal.  And  the  same  is  true  of  infant 
baptism  in  all  those  cases  where  the  faith  is  narrowed,  or 
denied,  by  parental  misconduct.  There  is  yet  no  falsity 
in  the  circumcision,  or  the  baptism,  because  all  which  it  sig¬ 
nified  was  true,  viz.,  that  God,  on  his  part,  sought  and 
meant  and  would  have  made  actual,  the  whole  promise  of  it. 
How  often  is  adult  baptism  itself  applied  to  such  as  have  no 
faith  at  all;  but  this  does  not  affect  the  inherent  truth  of 
the  rite,  and  if  they  should  live  so  as  not  to  allow  it  any  cor¬ 
respondence  with  fact,  when  applied  to  their  children,  does 
it  any  more  affect  the  truth  of  it  there?  The  rite  measures 
God’s  intent  and  promise,  and  refuses  to  narrow  itself  by 
the  perversity  of  the  subjects.  It  says,  “this  child  shall 
grow  up  in  faith — give  it  baptism.”  Then  if,  by  unbelief 
and  graceless  conduct  in  the  parents,  it  grows  up  to  be  the 


126 


APOSTOLIC  AUTHORITY 


stem  of  an  Edomitish  stock,  it  will  not  disappoint  God’s 
providential  order  and  plan,  and  as  little  will  it  disprove 
God’s  promise  and  truth  in  the  baptism.  God  is  honored, 
and  the  rite  is  honored  still.  It  is  only  the  parental  faith 
and  life  that  are  not. 

4.  It  appears  that  Christian  baptism  wTas  not  a  rite  wholly 
new,  but  a  reapplication  of  proselyte  baptism.  The  cus¬ 
tom  had  been,  as  the  Gentile  was  an  unclean  person,  to  bap¬ 
tize  him,  as  a  token  of  cleansing,  when  he  was  received  to 
be  a  Jew;  and  his  family,  of  course,  were  baptized  with  him, 
to  make  the  lustration  complete.  So  Christ  proposes  bap¬ 
tism,  as  the  token  of  that  lustration,  which  is  to  purify  such 
as  become  citizens  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  And  the 
conversation  of  Christ  with  Nicodemus  evidently  supposes 
such  a  rite  previously  existing  and  familiarly  known  by  him. 
This  being  true,  all  that  he  says  of  baptism,  or  the  lustra¬ 
tion  by  water  and  the  Spirit,  supposes  a  baptism  also  of 
children  with  their  parents,  according  to  the  custom.  The 
civil  regeneration  of  the  proselyte  and  his  family  by  such 
ceremonies  will  be  answered,  in  reapplying  the  rite,  by  the 
spiritual  regeneration  of  the  convert  and  his  family.  If 
infants  were,  in  this  case,  to  be  excepted,  or  not  baptized, 
the  exception  required  to  be  expressly  made;  for  otherwise, 
the  very  transfer  of  the  rite  to  a  spiritual  use  must,  of  itself, 
carry  infant  baptism  with  it.  Thus  Lightfoot  says  with 
great  force,  “the  Baptists  object — it  is  not  commanded  that 
infants  should  be  baptized,  therefore  they  should  not  be 
baptized.  But  I  say  it  is  not  prohibited  that  infants  should 
be  baptized,  therefore  they  should  be  baptized;  for  since 
the  baptism  of  children  was  familiarly  practiced  in  the  ad¬ 
mission  of  proselytes,  there  was  no  need  that  it  should  be 
confirmed  by  express  precept,  when  baptism  came  to  be  an 


OF  INFANT  BAPTISM 


127 

/ 

evangelical  sacrament.  For  Christ  took  baptism  as  he 
found  it,  and  the  whole  nation  knew  perfectly  well  that  lit¬ 
tle  children  had  always  been  baptized.  On  the  contrary, 
if  he  had  intended  that  the  custom  should  be  abolished,  he 
would  have  expressly  prohibited  it.”  Wetstein  also  says, 
in  the  same  manner — “  I  do  not  see  how  it  could  enter  into 
their  thoughts  to  expunge  boys  and  infants  from  the  list  of 
disciples,  or  from  baptism,  unless  they  had  been  excluded 
by  the  express  injunction  of  Christ,  which  we  nowhere 
find.  ”  * 

5.  Christ  comes  very  near  to  a  specific  and  formal  com¬ 
mand  of  infant  baptism,  when  we  put  together,  side  by  side, 
what  he  says  of  baptism  in  the  third  chapter  of  John,  and 
what  he  says  concerning  infants  elsewhere.  There  he  recog¬ 
nizes  baptism  as  a  token  of  one’s  entrance  into  the  kingdom 
of  God;  elsewhere  he  says — suffer  little  children  to  come  unto 
me  and  forbid  them  not  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
These  terms,  “kingdom  of  God,”  and  “kingdom  of  heaven,” 
denote,  externally,  the  church;  and  the  church  is  also  pre¬ 
sented  under  the  figure  of  a  school,  as  here  of  a  kingdom,  in 
all  those  cases  where  becoming  “a  disciple”  or  learner  is 
spoken  of.  In  this  latter  view  or  figure,  baptism  is  con¬ 
ceived  to  be  one’s  enrollment  openly  as  a  disciple;  and  what 
is  more  fit  than  that  children  should  be  learners — brought 
in  by  their  parents  to  be  learners  with  them — of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  grace?  This,  in  fact,  was  the  general  significance  of 
faith  in  those  times;  they  were  called  believers  who  so  recog¬ 
nized  the  truth  of  Christ’s  person  that  they  were  ready  to 
become  learners  under  him.  And  the  Baptists  themselves 
act  on  this  same  principle,  never  holding  the  necessity  that 

*  This  subject  of  proselyte  baptism  has  been  spoken  of  also  in  the 
second  Sermon,  and  need  not  be  further  dwelt  upon  here. 


128 


APOSTOLIC  AUTHORITY 


baptism  should  actually  follow  faith,  in  the  high  and  com¬ 
plete  sense  of  spiritual  conversion.  Probably  half  their 
members,  in  the  church,  come  into  doubt,  before  they  die, 
of  the  time  when  they  were  really  born  of  the  Spirit;  and, 
in  cases  of  open  apostasy,  where  there  is  a  recovery,  and  the 
disciple  openly  testifies  that  he  was  not  before  a  truly  con¬ 
verted  person,  he  is  not  rebaptized.  It  is  enough  that,  by 
his  baptism,  he  has  openly  signified  his  wish  to  be  a  disciple 
in  the  school  of  Christ;  where,  if  he  has  never  learned  before, 
it  is  only  the  more  necessary  that  he  be  a  true  learner  now; 
which  if  he  become,  the  great  law,  “  he  that  believeth  and  is 
baptized,”  is  sufficiently  fulfilled.  Just  so  with  the  child 
of  a  Christian  parentage;  whatever  doubts  may  be  enter¬ 
tained  of  his  certainly  growing  up  in  the  faith,  there  is  a  much 
better  presumption  that  he  will,  if  the  parents  are  faithful, 
than  there  is,  in  the  case  of  persons  converted  from  the  world, 
that  they  will  prove  to  be  true  believers;  and  if  he  should 
not  grow  up  in  the  faith,  but  afterwards  becomes  a  Chris¬ 
tian,  there  is  just  as  much  greater  propriety  in  his  baptism 
as  an  infant,  and  no  more  reason  why  he  should  be  rebap¬ 
tized,  than  there  is  in  the  case  of  apostate  professors  who 
become  truly  converted. 

6.  What  is  said  in  the  New  Testament  of  household  bap¬ 
tism,  or  the  baptizing  of  households,  is  positive  proof  that 
infants  were  baptized  in  the  times  of  the  apostles — bap¬ 
tized,  that  is,  in  and  because  of  the  supposed  faith  of  the 
parents.  The  fact  of  such  baptism  is  three  times  distinctly 
mentioned;  in  the  case  of  “the  household  of  Stephanas,”  of 
Lydia  “and  her  household,”  and  the  jailor  “and  all  his.” 
In  the  first  case  nothing  is  said  of  faith  at  all,  though  doubt¬ 
less  he  was  baptized  as  a  believer.  In  the  second,  every 
thing  turns  on  the  personal  faith  of  Lydia — “if  ye  have 


OF  INFANT  BAPTISM 


129 


judged  me  to  be  faithful.”  In  the  third,  it  seems  to  be  said, 
according  to  an  English  translation,  that  all  the  house  be¬ 
lieved — “  he  rejoiced,  believing  in  God,  with  all  his  house.” 
But  the  participle,  believing,  is  singular  and  not  plural  in 
the  original,  and  the  phrase — “with  all  his  house” — plainly 
belongs  to  the  verb  and  not  to  the  participle.  Rigidly 
translated,  the  passage  would  read — “he  rejoiced  with  all 
his  house,  himself  believing.” 

It  is  often  objected  that,  in  all  these  three  cases,  for 
aught  that  appears,  the  households  were  made  up  of  adult 
persons,  who  were  baptized  because  they  all  believed.  But 
the  chance  that  this  should  be  true  of  the  only  three  house¬ 
holds  said  to  be  baptized,  and  that  there  should  be  three 
households,  as  households  were  commonly  made  up  in  that 
time,  in  which  there  were  no  young  children  or  infants,  is 
not  even  one  in  a  million,  as  computed  by  what  is  called  the 
doctrine  of  chances.  Besides,  if  it  was  a  thing  understood 
that  infants  were  never  to  be  baptized,  it  is  important  to 
observe  that  no  such  way  of  speaking  could  ever  come  into 
use.  We  need  not  stop  to  ask  whether  certainly  there  were 
infants  in  any  one  of  these  households;  the  mode  of  speak¬ 
ing  itself  shows  that  baptism  went  by  households,  and  that 
when  the  head  was  judged  to  be  faithful,  his  baptism  car¬ 
ried  the  presumptive  faith  and  consequent  baptism  of  all. 
Of  this,  too — - 

7.  We  have  a  distinct  indication,  in  what  is  said  of  chil¬ 
dren,  where  but  one  of  the  parents  believes.  Thus  Paul 
distinctly  teaches,  “For  the  unbelieving  husband  is  sancti¬ 
fied  by  the  wife,  and  the  unbelieving  wife  is  sanctified  by 
the  husband;  else  were  your  children  unclean,  but  now  are 
they  holy.”  It  is  not  meant  here  that  the  children  are 
actually  and  inwardly  holy  persons,  but  that  only  having  one 


130 


APOSTOLIC  AUTHORITY 


Christian  parent  is  enough  to  change  their  presumptive 
relations  to  God;  enough  to  make  them  Christian  children, 
as  distinguished  from  the  children  of  unbelievers.  So  strong 
is  the  conviction,  even,  in  these  apostolic  times,  of  an  or¬ 
ganic  unity  sovereign  over  the  faith  and  the  religious  affini¬ 
ties  of  children  that,  where  but  one  parent  believes,  that 
faith  carries  presumptively  the  faith  of  the  children  with 
it.  And  upon  this  grand  fact  of  the  religious  economy, 
baptism  was,  from  the  first,  and  properly,  applied  to  the 
children  of  them  that  believe.  Hence,  too — 

8.  It  was  that  the  children  of  believers  were  familiarly 
addressed  with  them  as  believers;  as  in  the  epistles  of  Paul 
to  the  Ephesians  and  Colossians.  These  epistles  are  for¬ 
mally  inscribed  to  churches  or  Christian  brotherhoods — 
“to  the  saints,  which  are  at  Ephesus,  and  to  the  faithful 
in  Christ  Jesus” — “to  the  saints  and  faithful  brethren, 
which  are  at  Colosse.”  And  yet  in  both,  the  children  are 
particularly  addressed — “Children  obey  your  parents  in 
the  Lord,  for  this  is  right” — “Children  obey  your  parents 
in  all  things;  for  this  is  well  pleasing  unto  the  Lord.”  In 
this  manner,  children  are  formally  included  among  the 
“faithful  in  Christ  Jesus.”  The  conception  is  that  chil¬ 
dren  are,  of  course,  included  in  the  religion  of  their  parent¬ 
age,  grow  up  faithful  with  their  faithful  or  believing  parents. 
On  the  ground  of  this  same  presumption,  they  were  properly 
baptized  with  them,  or  on  their  account.  Again — 

9.  It  is  a  point  of  consequence  to  notice  that  such  as  re¬ 
ject  all  these  and  similar  evidences  from  the  Scripture,  on 
the  ground  that  infant  baptism  can  not  be  rightly  practiced, 
because  it  is  not  directly  and  specifically  appointed  in  the 
Scripture,  do  yet  make  nothing  of  their  own  argument  in 
other  observances  familiarly  accepted.  Why  infant  bap- 


OF  INFANT  BAPTISM 


131 


tism  was  not  and  should  not  be  required  to  have  been 
specifically  commanded,  I  have  shown  already;  how,  for 
example,  it  was  necessarily  developed,  as  from  a  point  dis¬ 
tinctly  referred  to  in  Peter’s  first  sermon,  and  how  the  very 
institution  of  baptism  carried,  of  necessity,  infant  baptism 
with  it,  apart  from  any  express  mention.  In  the  meantime, 
it  will  be  found  that  the  objectors  themselves  are  admitting 
and  practicing,  without  difficulty,  observances  that  have 
comparatively  no  specific  authority  at  all.  At  the  sacrament 
of  the  Supper,  they  use  leavened  bread  without  scruple, 
when  they  know  that  it  was  not  used  by  Christ  himself,  and 
was  solemnly  forbidden  at  the  festival,  which  he  was  there, 
in  fact,  reappointing  for  the  Christian  uses  of  his  disciples 
in  all  future  ages.  Where  then  is  the  authority  given  for  a 
change  even  in  the  element  of  the  Holy  Supper  itself?  The 
Christian  Lord’s  day,  too,  accepted  in  the  place  of  the  Jew¬ 
ish  Sabbath,  and  that  even  against  a  specific  command  of 
the  decalogue — how  readily,  and  with  how  little  scruple,  do 
they  accept  this  Lord’s  day  and  let  the  ancient  Sabbath  go, 
when  it  is  only  by  the  faintest,  most  equivocal,  or  evanes¬ 
cent  indications  they  can  make  out  a  shadow  of  authority 
for  the  change?  “ Direct  proof!  positive  command!  spe¬ 
cific  injunction!”  they  say,  “ without  these,  infant  baptism 
has  no  right.”  Where  then  do  they  get  their  authority  for 
these  other  observances;  one  of  them  never  referred  to  in 
Scripture  at  all,  and  the  other  so  doubtfully,  that  infant 
baptism  has,  in  comparison,  the  clear  evidence  of  day  ? 

Lastly,  it  remains  to  glance  at  the  evidences  from  church 
history,  or  the  history  of  times  subsequent  to  the  age  of  the 
apostles.  It  has  been  the  mood  of  Christian  learning,  in 
the  generation  past — for  the  learned  men  have  moods  and 
phases,  not  to  say  fashions,  like  others  in  the  less  thoughtful 


132 


APOSTOLIC  AUTHORITY 


conditions — to  make  large  concessions  in  the  matter  of  bap¬ 
tism,  both  as  regards  the  manner  and  the  subjects.  But  a 
reaction  is  now  begun,  and  it  is  my  fixed  conviction  that  it 
will  not  stop. 

It  has  never  been  questioned,  however,  that  infant  bap¬ 
tism  became  the  current  practice  of  the  church  at  a  very 
early  date.  It  is  mentioned,  incidentally  and  otherwise,  in 
the  writings  of  the  earliest  church  fathers  after  the  age  of 
the  apostles. 

Thus  it  is  testified  by  Justin  Martyr,  who  was  probably 
born  before  the  death  of  the  apostle  John — “  There  are 
many  of  us,  of  both  sexes,  some  sixty  and  some  seventy 
years  old,  who  were  made  disciples  from  their  childhood.” 
And  the  word  made  disciples  is  the  same  that  Christ  himself 
used  when  he  said,  “  Go  teach  [i.  e.  disciple]  all  nations,  bap¬ 
tizing,”  &c.;  the  same  that  was  currently  applied  to  bap¬ 
tized  children  afterwards. 

Ireneus,  born  a  few  years  later,  writes — “Christ  came  to 
redeem  all  by  himself;  all  who  through  him  are  regener¬ 
ated  unto  God;  infants  and  little  children,  and  young  men, 
and  older  persons.  Hence,  he  passed  through  every  age, 
and  for  the  infants  he  became  an  infant,  sanctifying  infants; 
among  the  little  children,  he  became  a  little  child,  sanctify¬ 
ing  those  who  belong  to  this  age;  and  at  the  same  time, 
presenting  them  an  example  of  well  doing,  and  obedience; 
among  the  young  men  he  became  a  young  man,  that  he 
might  set  them  an  example,  and  sanctify  them  to  the  Lord.” 
In  the  phrase,  “regenerated  to  God,”  which  is  thus  applied 
to  infants,  expressly  named  as  distinguished  from  little  chil¬ 
dren,  he  refers,  it  can  not  be  doubted,  to  baptism;  which, 
being  the  outward  sign  of  such  inward  grace,  was  naturally 
and  very  commonly  called  regeneration.  Infants  plainly 


OF  INFANT  BAPTISM 


133 


could  be  regenerated  to  God  in  no  other  sense;  and  there¬ 
fore  his  language  can  not  even  be  supposed  to  have  any 
meaning,  if  this  be  rejected. 

Tertullian  follows,  urging  the  delay  of  baptism,  and,  in 
fact,  advocating  the  disuse  of  infant  baptism  altogether. 
But  his  appeal  supposes  the  current  practice  of  such  baptism 
at  the  time,  and  in  that  way  rather  augments  than  dimin¬ 
ishes  the  wTeight  of  historic  evidence.  And  the  more  so 
that  he  urges  the  delay  of  baptism  on  grounds  that  are  false 
and  even  superstitious,  viz.:  that  baptism  carries  the  for¬ 
giveness  of  sins,  and  should  therefore  be  postponed  to  a  later 
period,  because  the  sins  committed  after  baptism  must  other¬ 
wise  be  cleared  by  a  more  purgatorial  method. 

Origen,  who  was  born  near  the  close  of  the  second  cen¬ 
tury,  or  about  a  hundred  years  after  the  time  of  the  apos¬ 
tles,  testifies — “  According  to  the  usage  of  the  church, 
baptism  is  given  to  infants.”  And  again — “The  church 
received  an  order  from  the  apostles  to  baptize  infants.” 

Somewhere  in  these  first  two  centuries,  the  ancient  writ¬ 
ing  called  the  “ Shepherd,”  or  the  “Shepherd  of  Hermas, ” 
because  it  purports  to  have  been  written  by  a  teacher  of 
that  name,  declares  the  opinion  that — ’“All  infants  are  in 
honor  with  the  Lord,  and  are  esteemed  first  of  all — the  bap¬ 
tism  of  water  is  necessary  to  all.”  Who  this  Hermas  was, 
and  when  he  lived,  is  not  ascertained,  but  he  is  supposed 
by  many  to  be  the  very  same  person  mentioned  by  Paul, 
Rom.  xvi.  14.  He  is  acknowledged  by  Neander,  as  one 
who  “had  great  authority  in  the  first  centuries.” 

It  is  a  remarkable  evidence,  too,  that  inscriptions  are 
found  on  the  monuments  of  children,  considered  by  anti¬ 
quarians  to  be  of  a  very  early  age,  probably  of  the  first  two 
or  three  centuries,  in  which  they  are  called  fideles,  that  is 


134 


APOSTOLIC  AUTHORITY 


faithfuls;  just  as  children  are  addressed  by  Paul  among  the 
“ faithful  brethren”  of  Ephesus  and  Colosse.  The  follow¬ 
ing  is  an  example — (Buonarotti,  17  Fabretti,  Cap.  4):  “A 
faithful  among  faithfuls,  here  lies  Zosimus.  He  lived  two 
years,  one  month,  and  twenty-five  days.”  How  far  they 
carried  the  presumption  of  infant  baptism,  that  children  are 
to  grow  up  in  the  grace  of  their  parents,  is  here  seen. 

It  signifies  little,  therefore,  as  respects  this  question,  after 
the  authorities  cited,  that  the  Bishops  of  the  North  African 
Church,  in  a  council  called  by  Cyprian,  about  the  middle 
of  the  third  century,  decided  that  baptism  should  not  of 
course  be  delayed  for  eight  days,  according  to  the  law  of 
circumcision,  which  many  supposed  to  govern  the  rite. 

So  clear,  in  short,  and  decided  was  the  authority  of  infant 
baptism,  that  Pelagius,  a  man  of  great  learning,  who  had 
traveled  in  Britain,  France,  Italy,  Africa  Proper,  Egypt, 
and  Palestine,  declared,  in  his  controversy  with  Augustine, 
about  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century,  that  “  he  had  never 
heard  of  any  impious  heretic  or  sectary,  who  had  denied  in¬ 
fant  baptism.”  “What,”  he  also  asked,  “can  be  so  impious 
as  to  hinder  the  baptism  of  infants  ?  ” 

Augustine  himself  also  testifies — “The  whole  church  of 
Christ  has  constantly  held  that  infants  were  baptized.  In¬ 
fant  baptism  the  whole  church  practices.  It  was  not  insti¬ 
tuted  by  councils,  but  was  ever  in  use.” 

Infant  baptism,  therefore,  is  a  fact  of  church  history  not 
to  be  fairly  questioned.  And  accordingly  the  argument 
may  be  summed  up  thus:  beginning  at  a  point  previous, 
we  find  customs  and  associations  that  would  almost  cer¬ 
tainly  be  issued  in  such  a  rite  of  family  religion;  in  the  dis¬ 
courses  of  Christ  and  the  apostolical  writings  we  find  that 
it  actually  was;  and  then  we  find  the  facts  of  church  history 


OF  INFANT  BAPTISM 


135 


correspondent.  On  the  whole,  while  it  may  be  admitted 
that  baptism  itself  is  a  little  more  positively  authenticated, 
it  can  not  be  denied  that  infant  baptism  is  authenticated  by 
all  sufficient  evidence. 


VII 


CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP  OF  CHILDREN 

“To  the  saints  and  faithful  brethren  in  Christ  which  are  at  Colosse.” 

— Colossians  i.  2. 

These  “saints  and  faithful  brethren,”  it  will  be  seen  in¬ 
clude  young  children;  for  the  apostle  makes  a  distribution 
of  them  afterwards,  in  the  third  chapter  of  the  epistle,  ad¬ 
dressing  the  class  of  wives,  the  class  of  husbands,  the  class 
of  fathers,  the  class  of  servants,  the  class  of  masters,  and, 
among  all  these,  the  class  of  children — -“  Children  obey 
your  parents  in  all  things;  for  this  is  well  pleasing  unto  the 
Lord.”  The  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  too,  is  inscribed,  in 
the  same  way — “to  the  saints  which  are  at  Ephesus,  and  to 
the  faithful  in  Christ”;  and  this,  again,  makes  a  like  dis¬ 
tribution;  addressing  the  classes  of  husbands,  wives,  fa¬ 
thers,  mothers,  children,  servants,  and  masters,  all  as  being 
included  in  the  church  at  Ephesus — “children  obey  your 
parents  in  the  Lord;  for  this  is  right.  Honor  thy  father  and 
mother;  for  this  is  the  first  commandment  with  promise.” 
Where  also  it  is  made  clear  that  he  is  speaking  to  quite  -a 
young  children;  for  he  turns  immediately  to  the  fathers, 
exhorting  them  to  bring  up  their  children  in  the  nurture 
and  admonition  of  the  Lord.  They  are  children  so  young, , 
therefore,  as  to  be  subjects  of  nurture,  and  yet  are  addressed) 
among  the  faithful  brethren. 

The  explanation,  then,  is  not  that  such  children  were  be¬ 
lievers,  in  the  sense  of  being  converts  entered  into  the  fold 

136 


CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP  OF  CHILDREN 


137 


by  an  adult  experience,  and  distinguished  from  other  chil¬ 
dren  not  thus  converted.  When  Lydia  speaks  of  herself  as 
one  adjudged  to  be  “  faithful/'  it  is  probably  in  this  sense. 
But  when  Titus,  in  ordaining  elders,  is  directed  to  choose 
such  as  have  “  faithful  children,  not  accused  of  riot,  or  un¬ 
ruly/’  it  would  be  very  singular,  if  he  was  permitted  to  or¬ 
dain  only  such  as  have  all  their  children  thus  formally  con¬ 
verted.  Paul  obviously  means  that  the  elders  shall  be  such 
as  are  under  no  scandal  on  account  of  their  families;  whose 
children  are  growing  up  in  the  Christian  way  and  grace; 
sober,  well-behaved,  hopefully  Christian  children.  We  can 
see,  too,  in  the  language  employed,  that  Paul  includes  the 
Colossian  and  Ephesian  children  among  the  faithful  breth¬ 
ren  of  the  two  cities,  in  this  more  presumptive  or  merely 
anticipative  way.  For  when  he  says,  “children  obey  your 
parents  in  the  Lord,”  it  is  not  “children  in  the  Lord,”  or 
“children  obey  in  the  Lord,  your  parents,”  but  it  is  “obey  j 
them  who  are  parents  in  the  Lord;”  as  if  their  very  parent¬ 
age  itself,  in  the  flesh,  were  a  parentage  also  in  the  Spirit, 
communicating  both  a  personal  and  a  Christian  life.  So, 
also,  when  the  parents  are  required  to  give  a  nurture  in  the 
Lord,  we  may  see  that  the  children  are  expected  to  be  grown 
as  saints  and  faithfuls,  and  to  be  presumptively  in  the  Lord, 
apart  from  all  expectations  and  processes  of  adult  conver¬ 
sion. 

And  it  was  out  of  such  uses  that  the  term  “ faithful ”  grew 
into  the  peculiar  kind  of  church  use,  in  which  it  denotes  all 
the  supposed  members  of  the  Christian  body,  whether  adults, 
or  only  baptized  children;  as,  for  example,  in  that  very 
ancient  inscription  cited  by  Buonarotti,  where  the  child 
“two  years,  one  month,  and  twenty-five  days  old,”  is  de¬ 
scribed  as  lying  among  his  Christian  kinsmen — “a  faithful 


138 


CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP 


among  faithfuls/’  The  very  language  supposes  a  member¬ 
ship  in  the  church,  or  among  the  faithful  brethren,  by  virtue 
of  baptism  and  mere  Christian  nurture;  such  as  on  the  foot¬ 
ing  of  strict  individualism  could  never  even  be  thought  of. 

What  I  propose  then,  at  the  present  time,  is  a  full  and 
careful  discussion  of  this  great  subject,  the  church  member¬ 
ship  of  baptized  children. 

And  as  it  has  fallen  out,  in  the  extreme  individualism  of 
our  modern  era,  that  multitudes  are  unable  to  conceive  it 
as  being  any  thing  less  than  a  kind  of  absurdity,  or  self- 
evident  monstrosity,  I  shall  be  obliged  to  show  the  nature 
and  kind  of  this  membership. 

As  it  is  very  commonly  disrespected  on  the  ground  of  its 
practical  insignificance,  I  must  also  show  the  reasons  why 
it  should  exist. 

And  then,  since  it  is  to  the  same  extent  disowned  as  a 
rightful  part  of  the  true  church  economy,  I  must  also  es¬ 
tablish  the  fact  of  its  existence. 

I.  I  am  to  show  the  nature  and  extent  of  this  membership. 

All  those  classes  of  Christian  disciples  who  practice  in¬ 
fant  baptism  conceive  it,  of  course,  to  have  a  certain  com¬ 
mon  character  with  adult  baptism,  and  so  to  create  a  sup¬ 
posed,  or  somehow  supposable  membership  in  the  church. 
And  yet  they  often  have  it  as  a  question,  suppressed,  or 
openly  put  without  satisfaction — “who  is  a  member  of 
Christ’s  body,  but  one  who  is  able  to  act  and  choose  for 
himself,  and  in  that  manner  to  believe?”  Many  preach¬ 
ers,  too,  quite  pass  over  the  fact  of  any  assignable  reality 
in  this  relationship,  publishing  a  call  of  salvation  that  prac¬ 
tically  ignores  it  as  having  any  meaning  at  all;  addressing 
young  persons  and  children  who  have  been  baptized,  in  a 


OF  CHILDREN 


139 


way  that  as  steadily  and  unqualifiedly  assumes  their  un¬ 
regenerate  state,  as  if  they  were  the  children  of  heathenism. 
The  opposers  of  infant  baptism  are  bolder  and  more  posi¬ 
tive,  of  course,  insisting  always  on  the  manifest  absurdity 
of  this  nondescript,  unintelligible,  unintelligent  member¬ 
ship;  which  makes  a  child  a  church  member,  not  to  be  a 
voter  nor  a  subject  of  discipline;  which  puts  the  initiatory 
rite  of  faith  upon  him,  when  he  does  not  believe  any  thing, 
or  even  know  there  is  any  thing  to  believe;  creating  thus  a 
membership  that  has  no  rational  meaning  and  no  sound 
verity,  but  supposes  a  faith  that  does  not  exist,  and  con¬ 
stitutes  a  relationship  that  brings  into  no  relation. 

What,  then,  is  this  infant  membership?  what  conception 
can  we  take  of  it,  which  will  justify  its  Christian  dignity? 
A  great  many  persons  who  are  very  sharp  at  this  kind  of 
criticism,  appear  to  have  never  observed  that  creatures  exist¬ 
ing  under  conditions  of  growth,  allow  no  such  terms  of  classi¬ 
fication  as  those  do  which  are  dead,  and  have  no  growth; 
such,  for  example,  as  stones,  metals,  and  earths.  They  are 
certain  that  gold  is  not  iron,  and  iron  is  not  silver,  and  they 
suppose  that  they  can  class  the  growing  and  transitional 
creatures,  that  are  separated  by  no  absolute  lines,  in  the 
same  manner.  They  talk  of  colts  and  horses,  lambs  and 
sheep,  and  it,  possibly,  not  once  occurs  to  them,  that  they 
can  never  tell  when  the  colt  becomes  a  horse,  or  the  lamb  a 
sheep;  and  that  about  the  most  definite  thing  they  can  say, 
when  pressed  with  that  question,  is  that  the  colt  is  poten¬ 
tially  a  horse,  the  lamb  a  sheep,  even  from  the  first,  having 
in  itself  this  definite  futurition;  and,  therefore,  that,  while 
horses  and  sheep  are  not  all  to  be  classed  as  colts  and  lambs, 
all  colts  and  lambs  may  be  classed  as  horses  and  sheep. 
And  just  so  children  are  all  men  and  women;  and,  if  there 


140 


CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP 


is  any  law  of  futurition  in  them  to  justify  it,  may  be  fitly 
classed  as  believing  men  and  women.  And  all  the  sharp 
arguments  that  go  to  cover  their  membership,  as  such,  in 
the  church,  with  absurdity,  or  turn  it  into  derision,  are  just 
such  arguments  as  the  inventors  could  raise  with  equal 
point,  to  ridicule  the  horsehood  and  sheephood  of  the  young 
animals  just  referred  to.  The  propriety  of  this  member¬ 
ship  does  not  lie  in  what  those  infants  can  or  can  not  be¬ 
lieve,  or  do  or  do  not  believe,  at  some  given  time,  as,  for 
example,  on  the  day  of  their  baptism;  but  it  lies  in  the  \ 
covenant  of  promise,  which  makes  their  parents,  parents 
in  the  Lord;  their  nurture,  a  nurture  of  the  Lord;  and  so 
constitutes  a  force  of  futurition  by  which  they  are  to 
grow  up,  imperceptibly,  into  “  faithfuls  among  faithfuls,”  in 
Christ  Jesus.  Perhaps  no  one  can  tell  when  they  become 
such,  and  it  may  be  that  some  initiating  touch  of  grace 
began  to  work  inductively  in  them,  by  a  process  too  deli¬ 
cate  for  human  observation,  even  from  their  earliest  in¬ 
fancy,  or  from  their  baptismal  day.  For  there  is  a  nur¬ 
ture  of  grace,  as  well  as  a  grace  of  conversion;  that  for 
childhood,  as  this  for  the  age  of  maturity,  and  one  as  sure 
and  genuine  as  the  other. 

The  conception,  then,  of  this  membership  is,  that  it  is  a 
potentially  real  one;  that  it  stands,  for  the  present,  in  the 
faith  of  the  parents  and  the  promise  which  is  to  them  and 
to  their  children,  and  that,  on  this  ground,  they  may  well 
enough  be  accounted  believers,  just  as  they  are  accounted 
potentially  men  and  women.  Then,  as  they  come  forward 
into  maturity,  it  is  to  be  assumed  that  they  will  come  for¬ 
ward  into  faith,  being  grown  in  the  nurture  of  faith,  and  will 
claim  for  themselves,  the  membership,  into  which  they 
were  before  inserted. 


OF  CHILDREN 


141 


Nor  is  this  a  case  which  has  no  analogies,  that  it  should 
be  held  up  as  a  mark  of  derision.  It  is  generally  supposed 
that  our  common  law  has  some  basis  of  common  sense.  And 
yet  this  body  of  law  makes  every  infant  child  a  citizen; 
requiring,  as  a  point  of  public  order,  the  whole  constabulary 
and  even  military  force  of  the  state  to  come  to  the  rescue, 
or  the  redress  of  his  wrongs,  when  his  person  is  seized  or 
property  invaded  by  conspiracy.  This  infant  child  can 
sue  and  be  sued;  for  the  court  of  chancery  will  appoint  him 
a  guardian,  whose  acts  shall  be  the  child’s  acts;  and  it  shall 
be  as  if  he  were  answering  for  his  own  education,  dress, 
board,  entertainments,  and  the  damages  done  by  his  ser¬ 
vants,  precisely  as  if  he  were  a  man  acting  in  his  own  cause. 
Doubtless  it  may  sound  very  absurdly  to  call  him  a  citizen. 
What  can  he  do  as  a  citizen?  He  can  not  vote,  nor  bear 
arms;  he  does  not  even  know  what  these  things  mean,  and 
yet  he  is  a  citizen.  In  one  view,  he  votes,  bears  arms, 
legislates,  even  in  his  cradle;  for  the  potentiality  is  in  him, 
and  the  state  takes  him  up  in  her  arms,  as  it  were,  to  own 
him  as  her  citizen. 

In  a  strongly  related  sense,  it  is,  that  the  baptized  child 
is  a  believer  and  a  member  of  the  church.  There  is  no  un¬ 
reality  in  the  position  assigned  him;  for  the  futurition  of 
God’s  promise  is  in  him,  and,  by  a  kind  of  sublime  anticipa¬ 
tion,  he  is  accepted  in  God’s  supernatural  economy  as  a  be¬ 
liever;  even  as  the  law  accepts  him,  in  the  economy  of  soci¬ 
ety,  to  be  a  citizen.  He  is  potentially  both,  and  both  is 
actually  to  be,  in  a  way  of  transition  so  subtle  and  imper¬ 
ceptible  that  no  one  can  tell  when  he  begins  to  be  either 
one,  or  the  other. 

Nor  is  it  any  objection  that  there  might  be  some  difficulty 
in  the  exercise  of  a  regular  church  discipline  over  baptized 


142 


CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP 


children;  or  that,  if  this  can  not  be  done,  they  are  really 
not  church  members  in  any  sense  that  ought  to  be  implied 
in  the  terms.  Is  then  a  child  no  citizen,  because  he  is  not 
held  responsible  in  the  law  in  precisely  the  same  manner  as 
adults;  responsible,  in  a  private  action,  for  slander;  or  re¬ 
sponsible,  in  a  public,  for  murder  and  treason  ?  The  church 
membership  is,  of  course,  to  be  qualified  and  shaded  by  the 
gradations  of  age;  just  as  the  law  contrives  to  shade  the 
progress  of  the  citizen  child  into  the  citizen  man.  All  the 
logical  or  theological  bantering  we  hear,  therefore,  on  one 
side  or  the  other,  showing  that  the  child,  being  a  church 
member,  ought  to  be  held  subject  to  discipline;  or,  if  he  is 
not  held  subject  to  discipline,  that  he  is  really  no  church 
member,  is  without  reason  or  any  proper  show  of  practical 
dignity. 

It  was  proposed — 

II.  To  show  the  reasons  why  this  relation  of  infant  mem¬ 
bership  should  exist,  or  be  appointed.  And  here  it  is  very 
obvious — 

First  of  all,  that,  if  there  is  really  no  place  in  the  church 
of  God  for  infant  children,  then  it  must  be  said,  and  formally 
maintained,  that  there  is  none.  And  what  could  be  worse 
in  its  effect  on  a  child’s  feeling,  than  to  find  himself  repelled 
from  the  brotherhood  of  God’s  elect,  in  that  manner.  What 
can  the  hapless  creature  think,  either  of  himself  or  of  God, 
when  he  is  told  that  he  is  not  old  enough  to  be  a  Christian, 
or  be  owned  by  the  Saviour  as  a  disciple  ? 

Again,  it  would  be  most  remarkable,  if  Christianity,  or¬ 
ganizing  a  fold  of  grace  and  love,  in  the  world  and  for  it, 
had  yet  no  place  in  the  fold  for  children.  It  spreads  its 
arms  to  say — “  For  God  so  loved  the  world,”  and  even  de- 


OF  CHILDREN 


143 


dares  that  publicans  and  harlots  shall  flock  in,  before  the 
captious  priests  and  princes  of  the  day,  and  yet  it  has  no 
place,  we  are  told,  for  children;  children  are  out  of  the  cate¬ 
gory  of  grace !  Jesus  himself  was  a  child,  and  went  through 
all  the  phases  and  conditions  of  childhood,  not  to  show  any 
thing  by  that  fact,  as  the  Christian  Fathers  fondly  sup¬ 
posed;  he  said,  too,  “  Suffer  little  children/’  but  this  was 
only  his  human  feeling;  he  had  no  official  relationship  to 
such,  and  no  particular  grace  for  them !  They  are  all  out¬ 
side  the  salvation-fold,  hardening  there  in  the  storm,  till 
their  choosing,  refusing,  desiring,  sinning  power  is  suffi¬ 
ciently  unfolded  to  have  a  place  assigned  them  within !  Is 
this  Christianity?  Is  it  a  preparation  so  clumsy,  so  little 
human,  so  imperfectly  graduated  to  man  as  he  is,  that  it 
has  no  place  for  a  full  sixth  part  of  the  human  race;  a  part 
also  to  which  the  other  five-sixths  are  bound,  in  the  dearest 
ties  of  love  and  care,  and  all  but  compulsory  expectation? 
It  would  seem  that  any  Christian  heart,  meeting  Christian¬ 
ity  at  this  point,  and  surveying  it  with  only  a  little  natural 
feeling,  would  even  be  oppressed  by  the  sense  of  some 
strange  defect  in  it,  as  a  grage  for  the  world.  In  this  view 
it  gives  to  little  children  the  heritage  only  of  Cain,  requir¬ 
ing  them  to  be  driven  out  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  and 
grow  up  there  among  the  outside  crew  of  aliens  and  enemies. 
Let  no  one  be  surprised  that,  under  such  treatment,  they 
stiffen  into  alienated,  wrathful  men,  ripened  for  wicked¬ 
ness,  by  the  ranges  of  all  but  reprobate  exclusion  in  which 
they  have  been  classed. 

Nor  again,  is  it  any  breach  on  their  liberty,  that  children 
are  entered  into  this  qualified  membership  by  their  par¬ 
ents.  What  is  it  but  a  being  entered  into  privilege  ?  Is  it 
a  hard  thing  for  human  parents  to  enter  their  child  into  the 


144 


CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP 


lot  of  wealth  and  high  society,  and  a  station  of  family  dig¬ 
nity,  because  it  does  not  leave  them  to  acquire  the  wealth 
and  the  position  of  honor  in  society,  by  their  own  original 
exertion,  unassisted?  When  the  order  of  the  Cincinnati 
took  their  sons  into  the  grand  society  of  revolutionary  honor 
with  them,  was  it  a  breach  on  the  liberty  of  the  children? 
Or  we  may  take  another  view  of  the  question.  The  church 
of  God  is  a  school,  and  the  members  are  disciples,  or  learn¬ 
ers.  Does  not  every  parent  choose  the  school  for  his  chil¬ 
dren,  giving  them  no  choice  in  the  matter,  and  taking  it  to 
be  his  own  unquestionable  right  ?  This,  too,  on  the  ground 
that  they  are  to  have  the  benefit  of  his  maturer  judgment, 
and  his  more  competent  choice.  Where  then  is  the  en¬ 
croachment,  when  Christian  parents  baptize  their  child  into 
the  same  discipleship  with  themselves,  and  set  it  in  the 
school  of  Christ  ?  It  is  only  a  part  of  their  ordinary  charge 
as  parents,  for  it  is  given  them  to  have  the  child  in  their 
own  character,  so  to  speak,  and  be  themselves  discipled 
with  it  and  for  it,  (and  why  not  it  with  them?)  in  all  the 
honors  and  hopes  of  the  heavenly  kingdom. 

Consider  again  the  remarkable  and  certainly  painful  fact 
that,  in  the  view  which  excludes  infant  baptism  and  the 
discipleship  of  children,  the  conversion  itself  of  a  parent 
operates  a  kind  of  dissolution  in  the  family  state  than  which 
nothing  could  be  more  unnatural.  It  is  much  as  if  our  proc¬ 
ess  of  naturalization  in  the  state,  were  to  naturalize  the 
parents  and  not  the  children;  leaving  these  to  be  foreigners 
still,  and  aliens.  God’s  effectual  calling  is  no  such  unnat¬ 
ural  grace;  it  will  never  call  the  parents  away  from  the 
children;  to  be  themselves  included  in  the  great  family  of 
salvation,  and  look  out,  in  their  joy,  to  see  their  children 
fenced  away!  No — “The  promise  is  to  you  and  to  your 


OF  CHILDREN 


145 


children  not,  to  you  without  your  children.  Come  in 
hither,  then,  ye  guilty  families  of  man,  parents  to  be  par¬ 
ents  in  the  Lord,  children  to  obey  in  the  Lord,  all  to  be  cir¬ 
cled  by  the  common  grace  of  life  and  the  common  fellowship 
of  the  saints.  Why  should  we  think  that  our  Great  Father 
who  has  been  refusing,  ever  since  the  world  began,  to  so 
much  as  put  into  any  bird  of  the  air,  an  instinct  that  will 
draw  it  away  from  its  nest,  may  yet,  as  a  matter  of  celestial 
mercy,  be  engaged  by  his  Spirit,  in  the  gathering  of  human 
parents  away  from  their  young ! 

It  is  a  matter,  too,  of  great  consequence  to  parents,  as 
respects  their  own  fidelity  in  their  office,  that  their  children 
are  not  put  away,  by  the  Saviour,  to  hold  rank  with  heathens 
outside  of  the  fold,  but  are  brought  in  with  them,  to  be  heirs 
together  with  them  in  the  grace  of  life.  What  will  justify, 
or  will  naturally  produce,  a  more  sullen  remissness  of  duty 
in  parents,  than  to  feel  that,  for  the  present,  God  has  shut 
away,  and  is  holding  away  their  children,  and  that  they  are 
never  to  be  disciples  of  the  fold,  till  after  they  have  been 
passed  round  into  it,  through  long  detours  of  estrangement 
and  ripening  guiltiness  ?  If  there  is  nothing  better  for  them 
than  to  be  converted  just  as  heathens  are,  why  should  they, 
as  parents,  be  greatly  concerned  for  their  own  example, 
and  the  faithfulness  of  their  training,  when  the  conversion 
is  to  be  every  thing  and  will  have  power  to  remedy  every 
defect  ? 

How  refreshing  the  contrast,  when  the  children,  given 
to  God  in  baptism,  are  accounted  members  of  the  church 
with  them,  as  being  included  in  their  faith,  and  having  the 
seal  of  it  upon  them.  They  look  upon  it  now  as  their  privi¬ 
lege  to  be  parents  in  the  Lord.  Their  prayers,  they  under¬ 
stand,  are  to  keep  heaven  open  upon  their  house.  Their 


146 


CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP 


aims  are  to  be  Christian.  Their  tastes  and  manners  to  be 
flavored  by  the  Christian  hope  in  which  they  live.  There 
is  to  be  a  quickening  element  in  the  atmosphere  they  make. 
They  will  set  all  things  upon  a  Christian  footing  for  their 
children’s  sake;  and  their  children,  growing  up  in  such  nur¬ 
ture  of  the  Lord,  will,  how  certainly,  unfold  what  their  nur¬ 
ture  itself  has  quickened. 

It  is  still  another  consideration,  that  the  church  itself, 
having  this  infant  membership  in  it,  will  unfold  other  aims 
and  tempers,  and  exert  a  finer  quality  of  power.  It  will  not 
be  a  dry  convention  of  simply  grown  up  men  and  women; 
the  men  will,  some  of  them,  be  fathers,  the  women  moth¬ 
ers,  and  the  children  being  also  included,  their  tender 
brotherhood  will  make  an  element  of  common,  consciously 
felt,  gentleness  for  all.  The  parents  will  learn  from  the 
children  quite  as  much  as  they  teach,  and  will  do  their  teach¬ 
ing  fitly,  just  because  they  learn.  The  church  prayers  will 
have  a  certain  paternity  and  maternity  in  them,  and  the 
children  will  feel  the  grace  of  these  prayers  warming  always 
round  them.  Even  the  church  life  itself,  two,  or  three,  or 
more,  generations  deep,  will  be  qualified  by  the  grandfather 
and  grandmother  spirit,  and  the  father  and  mother  spirit, 
and  the  reverent  manners  of  the  little  ones,  and  the  whole 
volume  of  religious  life  will  be  unfolded  thus,  by  taking  into 
itself  the  whole  volume  of  nature  and  family  feeling. 

Such  are  some  of  the  reasons,  briefly  and  faintly  pre¬ 
sented,  which  determine,  as  I  conceive,  God’s  appointment 
of  the  great  fact  of  an  infant  membership  in  his  church. 
And  yet  the  reasons,  taken  by  themselves,  are  hardly  a  suffi¬ 
cient  evidence  of  the  fact.  They  set  us  in  the  mood  of 
respect,  and  even  put  us  in  the  expectation  of  it,  but  they 
leave  the  inquiry  still  upon  our  hands — 


OF  CHILDREN 


147 


III.  Whether  the  supposed  infant  membership  is  a  real 
and  true  fact  ?  That  it  is,  may  be  seen  from  the  following 
proofs: — 

1.  Those  declarations  of  Scripture  which  assert  or  assume 
the  fact.  Thus,  when  the  Saviour  commands — “Suffer 
little  children  to  come  unto  me  and  forbid  them  not,  for  of 
such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven,’'  it  would  be  very  singular 
if  they  could  not  come  in  with  the  disciples,  when  they  may 
so  freely  come  to  the  Master  himself.  And  if  Christ  had 
been  calling  his  disciples  themselves  into  fraternity  with 
him,  what  more  could  he  have  said  for  them,  than  that  of 
such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven?  Nor  is  it  any  objection, 
as  respects  the  children,  that,  except  a  man  be  born  again, 
he  can  not  be  entered  into  this  kingdom;  for  potentially, 
at  least,  they  are  thus  born  again;  and  so  are  as  fitly  to  be 
counted  citizens  of  the  kingdom,  as  they  are  to  be  citizens 
of  the  state.  Besides,  there  is  still  less  in  this  objection, 
inasmuch  as  the  kingdom  of  God,  taken  in  its  lower  sense 
as  identical  with  the  church,  is  expressly  likened  by  the 
Saviour  to  a  net  that  gathers  of  every  kind.  And  what 
again  does  it  signify,  as  regards  the  apostolic  ideas  of  this 
matter  of  infant  membership,  that  the  great  apostle  to  the 
Gentiles,  in  at  least  two  of  his  epistles  to  Christian  churches, 
addresses,  directly,  children,  as  being  included  among  the 
saints  and  faithful  in  Christ  Jesus?  I  allege  as  proof, 

2.  The  analogy  of  circumcision.  This  was  given  to  be 
the  seal  of  faith,  and  the  church  token,  in  that  manner,  of 
a  godly  seed.  Baptism  can  certainly  be  the  same,  with  as 
little  difficulty,  or  as  little  charge  of  absurdity.  True,  they 
were  not  all  Israel  that  were  of  Israel,  and  so  all  may  not  be 
Israel  that  are  baptized.  Enough  that  God  gives  the  pos¬ 
sibility,  in  both  cases,  in  giving  the  rite  itself;  and  then  it 


148 


CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP 


is  to  be  seen  whether  the  parents  will  be  parents  in  the 
Lord,  as  it  is  formally  permitted  them  to  be.  Let  the  true 
point  here  be  carefully  observed;  some  kind  of  presump¬ 
tion  must  be  given  by  God,  in  respect  to  the  church  posi¬ 
tion  of  children;  for  they  must  either  be  taken  into  the 
church,  or  else  they  must  be  excluded  till  they  are  old 
enough  to  be  admitted  on  the  ground  of  a  religious  experi¬ 
ence — there  is  no  other  alternative.  If  they  are  excluded, 
then  it  is  taken  for  granted,  that  they  are  to  grow  up  as 
unbelievers  and  aliens,  which  is  only  their  public  consign¬ 
ment  to  evil.  If  they  are  taken  to  be  in  the  faith,  presump¬ 
tively,  as  in  the  nurture  of  their  parents,  and  so  accepted, 
then  every  kind  encouragement  is  given  to  them,  and  every 
pledge  of  divine  help  is  graciously  given  to  their  parents. 
Which  of  the  two  methods  is  most  consonant  to  nature,  and 
worthiest  of  God’s  beneficence,  it  is  not  difficult  to  see. 
God,  on  his  part,  gives  no  presumption,  either  to  the  par¬ 
ents  or  their  child,  that  he  is  to  be  only  a  transgressor  and 
alien,  but  he  gives  the  seal  of  the  faith,  as  a  pledge,  to  raise 
their  expectation  of  what  he  will  do  for  them,  and  to  throw 
the  blame  of  a  godless  childhood  and  youth,  if  such  there  is 
to  be,  on  themselves. 

3.  The  church  connection  of  children  is  virtually  as¬ 
sumed,  as  we  may  see,  by  the  apostle  Paul,  when  he  teaches 
that  the  believing  wife  sanctifies  the  unbelieving  husband, 
and  the  believing  husband  the  unbelieving  wife — “else 
were  your  children  unclean,  but  now  are  they  holy.”  He 
refers,  in  this  matter,  it  is  plain,  to  the  effect  of  a  parental 
faith,  on  the  church  position  of  children.  He  does  not,  of 
course,  use  the  term  “sanctify,”  in  any  spiritual  sense,  as 
affirming  the  regeneration  of  character  in  the  children;  but 
he  alludes  onlv  to  the  church  ideas  of  clean  and  unclean, 
affirming  that  the  unclean  state  of  a  godless  father,  or 


OF  CHILDREN 


149 


mother,  is  so  far  taken  away  by  the  clean  state  of  a  godly 
mother,  or  father,  that  the  children  are  accounted  clean,  or 
holy — so  far  holy,  that  is,  that  they  are  of  the  fold,  and  not 
aliens,  or  unclean  foreigners  without  the  fold  as  the  Jews 
were  accustomed  to  regard  all  the  uncircumcised  races. 
One  believing  parent,  he  declares,  puts  the  children  in  the 
church  classification  of  believers. 

4.  All  the  reasons  I  have  given  for  the  observance  of  in¬ 
fant  baptism,  go  to  establish  also  the  fact  of  infant  mem¬ 
bership  in  the  church.  And  this  holds  good,  especially  of 
that  wdiich  discovers  the  origin  of  the  rite  in  proselyte  bap¬ 
tism.  For  as  foreigners,  becoming  proselytes,  were  bap¬ 
tized  and  so  made  clean,  thus  to  be  accounted  natural  born 
citizens,  so  Christ,  reapplying  the  rite  to  a  spiritual  use, 
makes  it  the  token  of  that  regeneration  which  enters  the 
soul  into  his  heavenly  kingdom,  and  gives  a  divine  citizen¬ 
ship  there.  In  which  you  may  see  how  my  comparison  of 
infant  membership  in  the  church,  to  the  well-known  citizen¬ 
ship  of  infants  in  the  state,  is  borne  out  by  Christian  au¬ 
thority  itself.  Their  very  baptism  is  the  figure  of  their 
citizenship;  wherein  they  are  shown  to  be  “fellow-citizens 
of  the  saints,  and  of  the  household  of  God.” 

Now  it  is  to  be  conceded,  as  respects  all  these  proofs  from 
the  Scripture,  that  the  church  membership  of  children  is 
not  formally  asserted  in  them.  According  to  a  certain  coarse 
way  of  judging,  therefore,  they  are  not  as  strong  as  they 
might  be.  And  yet,  in  a  more  perceptive  and  really  truer 
mode  of  judgment,  they  lack  that  kind  of  strength  just  be¬ 
cause  they  have  too  much  of  another,  which  is  deeper  and 
more  satisfactory,  to  suffer  it.  So  familiar  is  the  idea,  to 
all  Jewish  minds,  of  a  religious  oneness  in  parents  and  their 
offspring,  that  a  church  institution  of  any  kind,  arranged 
to  include  parents  and  not  their  offspring,  would  even  have 


150 


CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP 


been  a  shocking  offense  to  the  nation.  Children  were  as 
much  expected  to  be  with  their  parents  in  their  religion,  as 
they  were  to  be  in  their  sustentation.  Does  any  one  doubt 
that  children  were  citizens  in  the  old  theocracy  ?  And  yet 
I  recollect  no  passage  where  that  sort  of  membership  with 
their  parents  is  instituted,  or  formally  asserted.  And  the 
reason,  is  that  it  is  a  fact  too  familiar,  too  close  to  the  senti¬ 
ment  or  sense  of  nature,  to  be  asserted.  We  can  even  see 
for  ourselves  that  they  look  upon  religious  faith  itself  as  a 
kind  of  heir-loom  in  the  family,  descending  on  the  child  by 
laws  of  family  connexion,  where  it  is  not  hindered  by  some 
bad  fault  in  the  manners  and  walk  of  the  parents.  Thus 
we  hear  even  Paul  himself,  the  man  who  knew  as  well  as  any 
other,  and  taught  as  powerfully,  the  significance  of  Chris¬ 
tian  faith,  addressing  his  young  brother  Timothy,  as  having 
the  greater  confidence  in  his  faith  because  it  is  hereditary — 
'‘When  I  call  to  remembrance  the  unfeigned  faith  that  is 
in  thee,  which  dwelt  first  in  thy  grandmother  Lois,  and  thy 
mother  Eunice,  and  I  am  persuaded  that  in  thee  also.” 
This  unfeigned,  this  certainly  true  Christian  faith,  he  con¬ 
ceives  to  have  even  leapt  the  gulf  between  the  old  religion 
and  the  new,  and  so  to  have  come  down  upon  him,  through 
at  least  two  generations  of  godly  motherhood  under  the  law 
and  before  the  coming  of  Jesus.  When  such  notions  of  fam¬ 
ily  grace  are  familiar,  what  does  it  signify  that  the  church 
membership  of  children  is  not  formally  asserted  ?  How  could 
that  be  instituted  by  an  apostolic  decree,  which  no  apostle, 
or  man,  or  woman,  had  ever  thought  could  be  otherwise  ? 

Over  and  above  these  more  direct  evidences,  for  the 
church  membership  of  baptized  children,  there  is  still  another 
kind  of  evidence  to  be  adduced,  which  has,  and  very  prop- 


OF  CHILDREN 


151 


erly  should  have,  much  weight.  I  allude  to  the  opinions  of 
the  church  and  her  most  qualified  teachers,  from  the  apos¬ 
tolic  era  downward.  In  one  sense,  the  mere  opinions  of 
men  regarding  such  a  question  are  of  little  consequence. 
But  where  they  coincide  with  the  known  practice  of  the 
church  from  the  earliest  times  downward,  and  show  the 
practice  to  be  grounded  in  the  same  reasons  of  organic 
unity  and  presumptive  grace  that  we  are  now  asserting, 
they  both  show  that  our  doctrine  is  no  novelty,  and  con¬ 
tribute  a  powerful  evidence  in  support  of  its  original  au¬ 
thenticity. 

Thus  I  have  cited  already  in  support  of  infant  baptism, 
passages  from  Justin  Martyr,  Ireneus,  Tertullian,  Origen, 
the  Shepherd  of  Hermas,  and  others,  which  not  only  show 
the  fact  of  infant  baptism,  but  discover  also,  in  their  phrase¬ 
ology,  the  same  views  of  church  membership  that  I  am  now 
asserting.  This  whole  view  of  infant  membership,  as  it 
stood  in  the  first  three  centuries  of  the  church  history,  ap¬ 
pears  to  be  well  summed  up,  both  as  regards  the  facts  and 
the  reasons,  in  the  following  statement  of  Neander: — 

"It  is  the  idea  of  infant  baptism  that  Christ,  through 
the  divine  life  which  he  imparted  to,  and  revealed  in  hu¬ 
man  nature,  sanctified  that  germ  from  its  earliest  develop¬ 
ment.  The  child  born  in  a  Christian  family  was,  when  all 
things  were  as  they  should  be,  to  have  this  advantage  over 
others,  that  he  did  not  come  to  Christianity  out  of  heathen¬ 
ism  or  the  sinful  natural  life,  but  from  the  first  dawning  of 
consciousness  unfolded  his  powers  under  the  imperceptible, 
preventing  influences  of  a  sanctifying,  ennobling  religion; 
that  with  the  earliest  germinations  of  the  natural  self-con¬ 
scious  life,  another  divine  principle  of  life,  transforming  the 
nature,  should  be  brought  nigh  to  him,  ere  yet  the  ungodly 


152 


CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP 


principle  could  come  into  full  activity,  and  the  latter  should, 
at  once,  find  here  its  powerful  counterpoise.  In  such  a 
life,  the  new  birth  was  not  to  constitute  a  new  crisis,  begin¬ 
ning  at  some  definable  moment,  but  it  was  to  begin  imper¬ 
ceptibly,  and  so  proceed  through  the  whole  life.  Hence 
baptism,  the  visible  sign  of  regeneration,  was  to  be  given 
to  the  child  at  the  very  outset:  the  child  was  to  be  conse¬ 
crated  to  the  Redeemer  from  the  very  beginning  of  its 
life”* 

A  more  popular  and  practical  view  of  Christianity  as 
seen  in  the  domestic  life  of  families,  and  one,  at  the  same 
time,  wholly  coincident,  is  given  by  Cave: — 

“Gregory  Nazianzen  peculiarly  commends  his  mother 
that  not  only  she  herself  was  consecrated  to  God,  and 
brought  up  under  a  pious  education,  but  that  she  con¬ 
veyed  it  down,  as  a  necessary  inheritance,  to  her  children; 
and  it  seems  her  daughter  Gorgonia  was  so  well  seasoned 
with  these  holy  principles,  that  she  religiously  walked  in 
the  steps  of  so  good  a  pattern;  and  did  not  only  reclaim 
her  husband,  but  educated  her  children  and  nephews  in  the 
ways  of  religion,  giving  them  an  excellent  example  while 
she  lived,  and  leaving  this,  as  her  last  charge  and  request 
when  she  died.  *  *  *  This  was  the  discipline  under  which 
Christians  were  brought  up  in  those  times.  Religion  was 
instilled  into  them  betimes,  which  grew  up  and  mixed  itself 
with  their  ordinary  labors  and  recreations.  *  *  *  So  that 
Jerome  says,  of  the  place  where  he  lived,  you  could  not  go 
into  the  field,  but  you  might  hear  the  plowman  at  his  hal¬ 
lelujahs,  the  mower  at  his  hymns,  and  the  vine-dresser 
singing  David’s  Psalms.”  f 

*  Neander’s  Church  History,  Torrey’s  translation,  vol.  i,  p.  425. 

f  Primitive  Christianity,  vol.  i,  pp.  272,  273. 


OF  CHILDREN 


153 


I  can  not  answer  for  an  exact  agreement  of  my  doctrine 
with  that  of  Calvin.  It  must  be  sufficient  that  he  recog¬ 
nizes  the  valid  possibility  of  a  regenerate  character,  exist¬ 
ing  long  before  it  is  formally  developed,  and  the  propriety 
of  infant  baptism  as  the  initiatory  rite  of  membership.  He 
says : — 

“Christ  was  sanctified  from  his  earliest  infancy,  that  he 
might  sanctify  in  himself  all  his  elect.  But  how,  it  is  in¬ 
quired,  are  infants  regenerated  who  have  no  knowledge 
either  of  good  or  evil  ?  We  reply  that  the  work  of  God  is 
not  yet  without  existence  because  it  is  not  observed  or  un¬ 
derstood  by  us.  Now  it  is  certain  that  some  infants  are 
saved,  and  that  they  are  previously  regenerated  by  the  Lord 
is  beyond  all  doubt.  They  are  baptized  into  future  repen¬ 
tance  and  faith;  for  though  these  graces  have  not  yet  been 
formed  in  them,  the  seeds  of  both  are  nevertheless  im¬ 
planted  in  their  hearts  by  the  secret  operations  of  the 
Spirit.”* 

The  mercurial  mind  of  Baxter  penetrates  directly  into  all 
the  subtleties  of  the  question,  asserting  the  organic  unity 
of  children  who  stand  accepted  in  the  covenant  of  their 
fathers;  showing  how  regenerate  character  is  to  begin, 
seminally,  in  the  children  of  them  that  believe,  and  get  the 
start  of  sin  by  a  kind  of  gracious  anticipation;  and  so  that, 
in  this  view,  nurture  and  growth  are  God’s  way  of  unfold¬ 
ing  grace  in  the  church,  as  preaching  and  conversion  are  his 
method  of  grace  with  them  that  are  without.  Which  three 
points  are  successively  asserted  in  the  following  passages: — 

“ Q. — Why  then  are  they  baptized  who  can  not  covenant? 

“A. — As  children  are  made  sinners  and  miserable  by  the 
parents,  without  any  act  of  their  own,  so  they  are  delivered 
*  Institutes,  Book  iv,  chap.  16,  §  17,  18,  20. 


154 


CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP 


out  of  it  by  the  free  grace  of  Christ,  upon  a  condition  per¬ 
formed  by  their  parents.  Else  they  who  are  visibly  born 
in  sin  and  misery  should  have  no  certain  or  visible  way  of 
remedy.  Nature  maketh  them,  as  it  were,  parts  of  their 
parents,  or  so  near  as  causeth  their  sin  and  misery.  And 
this  nearness  supposed,  God,  by  his  free  grace,  hath  put  it 
in  the  power  of  the  parents  to  accept  for  them  the  blessings 
of  the  covenant,  and  to  enter  them  into  the  covenant  of 
God,  the  parents’  will  being  instead  of  their  own,  who  have 
yet  no  will  to  choose  for  themselves.”* 

“Of  those  baptized  in  infancy,  some  do  betimes  receive 
the  secret  seeds  of  grace,  which,  by  the  blessings  of  a  holy 
education,  is  stirring  in  them  according  to  their  capacity, 
and  working  them  to  God  by  actual  desires,  and  working 
them  from  all  known  sin,  and  entertaining  further  grace, 
and  turning  them  into  actual  acquaintance  with  Christ,  as 
soon  as  they  arrive  at  full  natural  capacity,  so  that  they 
never  were  actual  ungodly  persons.”! 

“Ungodly  parents  do  serve  the  devil  so  effectually,  in 
the  first  impressions  on  their  children’s  minds,  that  it  is 
more  than  magistrates  and  ministers  and  all  reforming 
means  can  afterwards  do  to  recover  them  from  that  sin  to 
God.  Whereas,  if  you  would  first  engage  their  hearts  to 
God  by  a  religious  education,  piety  would  then  have  all  those 
advantages  that  sin  hath  now.  (Prov.  xxii.  6.)  The  lan¬ 
guage  which  you  teach  them  to  speak  when  they  are  chil¬ 
dren,  they  will  use  all  their  life  after,  if  they  live  with  those 
that  use  it.  And  so  the  opinions  which  they  first  receive, 
and  the  customs  which  they  are  used  to  at  first  are  very 
hardly  changed  afterwards.  I  doubt  not  to  affirm,  that  a 

*  Teacher  of  Householders,  fol.,  vol.  iv,  p.  135. 

f  Confirmation,  fol.  vol.  iv.,  p.  267. 


OF  CHILDREN 


155 


godly  education  is  God’s  first  and  ordinary  appointed  means, 
for  the  begetting  of  actual  faith  and  other  graces  in  the 
children  of  believers.  Many  have  received  grace  before;  but 
they  can  not  sooner  have  actual  faith,  repentance,  love,  or 
any  grace  than  they  may  have  reason  itself,  in  act  and  ex¬ 
ercise.  And  the  preaching  of  the  word  by  public  ministers, 
is  not  the  first  ordinary  means  of  grace,  to  any  but  those 
that  were  graceless  till  they  come  to  hear  such  preaching; 
that  is,  to  those  on  whom  the  first  appointed  means  hath 
been  neglected  or  proved  vain;  *  *  *  therefore  it  is  ap¬ 
parent  that  the  ordinary  appointed  means  for  the  first  ac¬ 
tual  grace,  is  parents’  godly  instruction  and  education  of 
their  children.  And  public  preaching  is  appointed  for  the 
conversion  of  those  only  that  have  missed  the  blessing  of 
the  first  appointed  means.”* 

Our  New  England  fathers,  coming  out  as  they  did  from 
a  mode  of  church  economy  which  made  Christian  piety 
itself  to  be  scarcely  more  than  baptism,  and  passing  through 
great  struggles  to  settle  a  scheme  of  church  order  that 
should  recognize  the  strict  individuality  of  persons,  and  the 
essential  personality  of  spiritual  regeneration,  fell  off  for  a 
time,  as  they  naturally  might,  into  a  denial  of  the  great  un¬ 
derlying  principles  and  facts  on  which  the  membership  of 
baptized  children  in  the  church  must  ever  be  rested.  In 
the  Cambridge  Platform  of  1649,  they  asserted  a  view  of 
membership,  by  which  it  was  to  be  rigidly  confined  to  such 
as  appear  to  be  renewed  persons.  Meantime  none  were 
allowed  to  be  qualified  as  voters  in  the  commonwealth,  ex¬ 
cept  in  the  Hartford  and  Providence  colonies,  who  were  not 
members  of  the  church — the  same  principle  with  which  they 
had  been  familiar  in  England.  The  result  was  under  their 
*  Christian  Directory,  part  ii.,  chap.  6,  §  4,  fol.  pp.  406,  407. 


156 


CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP 


individualizing  scheme  of  membership,  that  they  began  to 
find,  as  soon  as  their  sons  were  grown  to  manhood,  that 
many  of  them,  even  though  baptized,  were,  in  fact,  aliens 
in  the  state.  They  could  not  vote  in  the  state,  and,  having 
no  pretense  of  faith,  could  not  baptize  their  children,  not 
being  in  the  church  themselves.  Another  synod  was  con¬ 
vened  A.  D.  1662,  to  find  some  way  of  relieving  these  diffi¬ 
culties.  And  they  hit  upon  the  rather  strange  expedient 
of  a  half-membership,  allowing  all  baptized  persons  who 
live  reputably,  and  give  a  speculative  assent  to  the  gospel, 
to  be  so  far  members  that  they  may  be  voters  and  have 
their  children  baptized.  This  decision  wTas  stoutly  opposed 
by  some  of  the  ablest  men  in  the  synod,  and  great  debates 
followed.  And  yet  as  the  facts  were  reported  by  Cotton 
Mather,  these  three  positions  were  asserted  and  agreed  to 
on  all  hands — even  though  the  scheme  adopted  had  no  sys¬ 
tematic  and  practical  agreement  with  them,  or  ground  of 
reason  in  them. 

1.  That  the  children  of  Christian  parents,  trained  in  a 
Christian  way,  often  grow  up  as  spiritually  renewed  persons, 
and  must  indeed  be  accounted  true  disciples  of  Christ,  until 
some  evidence  conclusive  to  the  contrary  is  given  by  their 
conduct. 

“  Children  of  the  covenant  have  frequently  the  beginning 
of  grace  wrought  in  them  in  younger  years,  as  Scripture 
and  experience  show.  Instance  Joseph,  Samuel,  David, 
Solomon,  Abijah,  Josiah,  Daniel,  John  Baptist,  Timothy. 
Hence  this  sort  of  persons,  [baptized  persons]  showing  noth¬ 
ing  to  the  contrary,  are,  in  charity,  or  to  ecclesiastical  repu¬ 
tation,  visible  believers.”  * 

2.  That  baptism  supposes  an  initial  state  of  piety,  or 

*  Magnalia,  book  v.,  fol.  p.  72. 


OF  CHILDREN  157 

some  right  beginning,  in  which  the  child  is  prepared  unto 
good,  by  causes  prior  to  his  own  will. 

“We  are  to  distinguish  between  faith  and  the  hopeful 
beginning  of  it,  the  charitable  judgment  whereof  runs  upon 
a  great  latitude,  and  faith  in  the  special  exercise  of  it,  unto 
the  visible  discovery  whereof,  more  experienced  operations 
are  to  be  inquired  after.  The  words  of  Dr.  Ames  are: 
‘Children  are  not  to  be  admitted  to  partake  of  all  church 
privileges,  till  first  increase  of  faith  do  appear,  but  from 
those  which  belong  to  the  beginning  of  faith  and  entrance 
into  the  church  they  are  not  to  be  excluded/  ”* 

3.  That  there  is  a  kind  of  individualism  which  runs  only 
to  evil;  that  the  church  is  designed  to  be  an  organic,  vital, 
grace-giving  power,  and  thus  a  nursery  of  spiritual  life  to  its 
children. 

“The  way  of  the  Anabaptists,  to  admit  none  to  member¬ 
ship  and  baptism  but  adult  professors,  is  the  straitest  way; 
one  would  think  it  should  be  a  way  of  great  purity;  but  ex¬ 
perience  hath  shewed  that  it  has  been  an  inlet  unto  great 
corruption.  If  we  do  not  keep  in  the  way  of  a  converting , 
grace-giving  covenant ,  and  keep  persons  under  those  church 
dispensations  wherein  grace  is  given,  the  church  will  die  of 
a  lingering  though  not  violent  death.  The  Lord  hath  not 
set  up  churches  only  that  a  few  old  Christians  may  keep  one 
another  warm  while  they  live,  and  then  carry  away  the 
church  with  them  when  they  die;  no,  but  that  they  might 
with  all  care,  and  with  all  the  obligations  and  advantages 
to  that  care  that  may  be,  nurse  still  successively  another 
generation  of  subjects  to  our  Lord,  that  may  stand  up  in 
his  kingdom  when  they  are  gone/’t 

*  Magnalia,  book  v.,  fol.  p.  77. 
f  Magnalia,  book  v.,  fol.  p.  81. 


158 


CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP 


Under  this  half-way  covenant,  and  probably  in  part 
because  of  it,  practical  religion  fell  into  a  state  of  great 
debility.  The  churches  lost  their  spirituality,  and  had 
well  nigh  lost  the  idea  of  spiritual  life  itself;  when  at  length 
the  Great  Revival,  under  Whitefield  and  Edwards,  inaugu¬ 
rated  and  brought  up  to  its  highest  intensity  the  new  era  of 
individualism — the  same  overwrought,  misapplied  scheme 
of  personal  experience  in  religion,  which  has  continued  with 
some  modifications  to  the  present  day.  It  is  a  religion  that 
begins  explosively,  raises  high  frames,  carries  little  or  no 
expansion,  and  after  the  campaign  is  over,  subsides  into  a 
torpor.  Considered  as  a  distinct  era,  introduced  by  Ed¬ 
wards,  and  extended  and  caricatured  by  his  cotemporaries, 
it  has  one  great  merit,  and  one  great  defect.  The  merit 
is  that  it  displaced  an  era  of  dead  formality,  and  brought 
in  the  demand  of  a  truly  supernatural  experience.  The 
defect  is,  that  it  has  cast  a  type  of  religious  individualism, 
intense  beyond  any  former  example.  It  makes  nothing 
of  the  family,  and  the  church,  and  the  organic  powers  God 
has  constituted  as  vehicles  of  grace.  It  takes  every  man 
as  if  he  had  existed  alone;  presumes  that  he  is  unreconciled 
to  God  until  he  has  undergone  some  sudden  and  explosive 
experience  in  adult  years,  or  after  the  age  of  reason;  de¬ 
mands  that  experience,  and  only  when  it  is  reached,  allows 
the  subject  to  be  an  heir  of  life.  Then,  on  the  other  side,  or 
that  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  the  very  act  or  ictus  by  which  the 
change  is  wrought  is  isolated  or  individualized,  so  as  to  stand 
in  no  connection  with  any  other  of  God’s  means  or  causes 
— an  epiphany,  in  which  God  leaps  from  the  stars,  or  some 
place  above,  to  do  a  work  apart  from  all  system,  or  connec¬ 
tion  with  his  other  works.  Religion  is  thus  a  kind  of  trans¬ 
cendental  matter,  which  belongs  on  the  outside  of  life,  and 


OF  CHILDREN 


159 


has  no  part  in  the  laws  by  which  life  is  organized — a  miracu¬ 
lous  epidemic,  a  fire-ball  shot  from  the  moon,  something 
holy,  because  it  is  from  God,  but  so  extraordinary,  so  out 
of  place,  that  it  can  not  suffer  any  vital  connection  with  the 
ties,  and  causes,  and  forms,  and  habits,  which  constitute 
the  frame  of  our  history.  Hence  the  desultory,  hard,  vio¬ 
lent,  and  often  extravagant  or  erratic  character  it  manifests. 
Hence,  in  part,  the  dreary  years  of  decay  and  darkness,  that 
interspace  our  months  of  excitement  and  victory. 

Even  Edwards  himself,  fifteen  years  after  the  Great 
Revival,  began  to  be  oppressed  with  sorrowful  convictions 
of  some  great  defect  in  the  matter  and  mode  of  it,  confessing 
his  doubt  whether  “the  greater  part  of  supposed  converts 
give  reason,  by  their  conversation,  to  suppose  that  they 
continue  converts”;  protesting,  also  his  special  confidence 
in  the  fruits  of  family  religion  in  terms  like  these — 

“Every  Christian  family  ought  to  be,  as  it  were,  a  little 
church,  consecrated  to  Christ,  and  wholly  influenced  and 
governed  by  his  rules.  And  family  education  and  order  are 
some  of  the  chief  means  of  grace .  If  these  fail,  all  other 
means  are  likely  to  prove  ineffectual.”  * 

Dr.  Hopkins,  a  pupil  of  Edwards,  had  probably  been 
turned  by  suggestions  from  him,  to  a  consideration  of  the 
importance  of  family  nurture  and  piety,  as  connected  with 
the  propagation  of  religion;  and,  as  if  to  supply  some  defect 
in  this  direction,  he  occupied  sixty  pages  in  his  System  of 
Divinity,  with  a  careful  discussion  of  the  “nature  and  de¬ 
sign  of  infant  baptism.”  In  this  article,  he  goes  even  be¬ 
yond  the  notion  of  a  presumptive  piety  in  the  children  bap¬ 
tized,  and  says: — “The  church  receive  and  look  upon  them 
as  holy,  and  those  who  shall  be  saved.  So  they  are  as 
*  Farewell  Sermon,  Works,  vol.  i,  p.  136. 


160 


CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP 


visibly  holy,  or  as  really  holy,  in  their  view,  as  their  parents 
are.”  * 

How  far  his  theory  of  conversion  would  compel  him  to 
isolate  the  act  of  God  by  which  the  spiritual  renovation  of  a 
soul  is  wrought,  I  will  not  undertake  to  decide.  Enough, 
that  he  asserts  an  organic  connection  of  character  between 
parents  and  children,  as  effectual  for  good  as  for  evil;  nay, 
that  they  may  as  truly,  and  in  the  same  sense,  transmit  holi¬ 
ness  as  they  transmit  existence.  Thus,  after  asserting,  not 
more  clearly  or  decidedly  than  I  have  done,  the  impossibil¬ 
ity  that  parents  should  spiritually  renew  their  children, 
considered  as  acting  by  themselves,  he  says: — 

“But  it  does  not  follow  from  this,  that  God  has  not  so 
constituted  the  covenant  of  grace,  that  holiness  shall  be 
communicated,  by  Him,  to  the  children,  in  consequence  of 
the  faithful  endeavors  of  their  parents;  so  that,  in  this 
sense,  and  by  virtue  of  such  a  constitution,  they  do  by  their 
faithful  endeavors  convey  saving  blessings  to  their  chil¬ 
dren.  In  this  way  they  give  existence  to  their  children. 
God  produces  their  existence  by  his  own  Almighty  energy; 
but,  by  the  constitution  he  has  established,  they  receive 
their  existence  from  their  parents,  or  by  their  means.  By 
an  established  constitution,  parents  convey  moral  depravity 
to  their  children.  And  if  God  has  been  pleased  to  make  a 
constitution  and  appoint  a  way,  in  his  covenant  of  grace 
with  man,  by  which  pious  parents  may  convey  and  com¬ 
municate  moral  rectitude  or  holiness  to  their  children,  they, 
by  using  the  appointed  means,  do  it  as  really  and  effectually 
as  they  communicate  existence  to  them.  In  this  sense, 
therefore,  they  may  convey  and  give  holiness  and  salvation 
to  their  children.”  f 

*  Works,  vol.  ii,  pp.  121,  147. 

f  Works,  vol.  ii,  p.  160. 


OF  CHILDREN 


161 


Dr.  Witherspoon,  a  contemporary  of  Dr.  Hopkins,  held 
opinions  on  this  subject  that  were  in  a  high  degree  coinci¬ 
dent,  though  presented  in  a  more  popular  and  less  doctrinal 
shape.  He  says: — 

“I  will  not  enlarge  on  some  refined  remarks  of  persons 
as  distinguished  for  learning  as  piety,  some  of  whom  have 
supposed  that  they  [children]  are  capable  of  receiving  im¬ 
pressions  of  desire  and  aversion,  and  even  of  moral  temper, 
particularly  of  love  or  hatred,  in  the  first  year  of  their  lives. 
*  *  *  When  the  gospel  comes  to  a  people  that  have  long 
sitten  in  darkness,  there  may  be  numerous  converts  of  all 
ages ;  but  when  the  gospel  has  long  been  preached,  in  plenty 
and  purity,  and  ordinances  regularly  administered,  few  but 
those  who  are  called  in  early  life  are  called  at  all.  A  very 
judicious  and  pious  writer,  Richard  Baxter,  is  of  opinion  that 
in  a  regular  state  of  the  church,  and  a  tolerable  measure  of 
faithfulness  and  purity  in  its  officers,  family  instruction  and 
government  are  the  usual  means  of  conversion,  public  ordi¬ 
nances  of  edification.  This  seems  agreeable  to  the  language 
of  Scripture;  for  we  are  told  that  God  hath  set  in  the  church 
apostles,  prophets,  evangelists,  pastors  and  teachers,  (not 
for  converting  sinners,  but)  for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints, 
for  the  work  of  the  ministry,  for  the  edifying  of  the  body 
of  Christ.”* 

From  all  these  citations,  which  could  be  multiplied  with¬ 
out  limit,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  children  of  Christian  par¬ 
ents  have  been  looked  upon  as  being  heirs  of  the  parental 
faith,  and  presumptively  included  in  that  faith;  and  so, 
either  with  or  without  a  distinct  assertion  of  the  proper 
church  membership  of  children,  such  opinions  have  been 

*  Witherspoon,  sermon  on  the  Religious  Education  of  Children, 
pp.  9,  13. 


162 


CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP 


held  in  all  ages  respecting  them,  as  make  the  denial  of  their 
membership  a  clear  impropriety  and  even  a  kind  of  offense 
against  nature. 


It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add,  in  closing  this  subject,  that 
if  children  baptized  are  so  far  accepted  as  members  of  the 
Christian  church,  it  must  be  a  great  fault  and  a  most  hurt¬ 
ful  dereliction  of  duty  that  nothing  is  practically  made  of 
this  membership,  and  that  really  it  passes  for  a  thing  of  no 
significance.  The  rite  is  appointed  because  it  has  a  mean¬ 
ing  and  a  value,  and  then,  when  it  is  passed,  it  is  treated 
in  a  way  that  even  indicates  the  possible  absurdity  of  it. 
That  the  children  will  see  any  thing  in  such  a  mode  of  prac¬ 
tice  is  impossible.  And  it  requires  but  the  smallest  possible 
perception,  to  see  that  the  rite  will,  in  this  manner,  be  regu¬ 
larly  sinking  into  discredit,  till  it  is  quite  done  away,  and  the 
value  it  might  have  in  the  church  is  lost.  To  accomplish 
all  that  is  needed  to  give  full  effect  to  the  rite — 

Baptized  children  ought  to  be  enrolled  by  name  in  the 
catalogue  of  each  church,  as  composing  a  distinct  class  of 
candidate,  or  catechumen-members;  and  to  see  that  they 
are  held  in  expectancy,  thus,  by  the  church,  as  presump¬ 
tively  one  with  them  in  the  faith  they  profess. 

Then,  when  they  come  forward  to  acknowledge  their 
baptism,  and  assume  the  covenant  in  their  own  choice,  they 
ought  not  to  be  received  as  converts  from  the  world,  as  if 
they  were  heathens  coming  into  the  fold,  but  there  should 
be  a  distinction  preserved,  such  as  makes  due  account  of 
their  previous  qualified  membership;  a  form  of  assumption 
tendered  in  place  of  a  confession — something  answering  to 
?Hthe  Lutheran  confirmation,  passed  without  a  bishop’s  hands. 
Children,  as  soon  as  they  are  well  out  of  their  infancy, 


OF  CHILDREN 


163 


ought  to  be  taken  also  to  the  stated  meetings  of  fellowship 
and  prayer,  drawn  into  all  the  moods  of  worship,  praise, 
supplication,  reproof,  as  being  rightfully  concerned  in  them, 
on  the  score  of  their  membership.  There  ought  to  be  a 
great  deal  made  of  singing  too  in  such  meetings,  that  they 
may  join  their  voices  and  play  into  expression  their  own 
tribute  of  feeling  and  Christian  sentiment. 

Whenever  there  are  orphan  children,  that  have  been 
baptized,  the  church  ought  to  look  after  them,  as  being 
members;  see,  if  possible,  that  they  are  not  neglected,  but 
trained  up  in  a  Christian  manner;  provided,  if  need  be, 
with  a  godly  fatherhood  and  motherhood  in  the  church 
itself;  led  into  the  church  and  out  into  the  world,  as  disci¬ 
ples  beloved  according  to  their  years. 

Meantime,  it  is  a  matter  of  prime  significance  that  the 
Christian  father  and  mother  should  live  so  as  to  indicate 
a  sense  of  their  privilege  and  responsibility;  even  as  Abra¬ 
ham  did  when  he  sojourned  in  the  land  of  promise,  as  in  a 
strange  country,  dwelling  in  tents  with  Isaac  and  Jacob, 
heirs  with  him  of  the  same  'promise.  It  is  one  thing  to 
live  for  a  family  of  children,  as  if  they  were  going  possibly 
to  be  converted,  and  a  very  different  thing  to  live  for  them 
as  church  members,  training  them  into  their  holy  profession; 
one  thing  to  have  them  about  as  strangers  to  the  covenant 
of  promise,  and  another  to  have  them  about  as  heirs  of  the 
same  promise,  growing  up  into  it,  to  fulfill  the  seal  of  faith 
already  upon  them.  One  great  reason  why  the  children  of 
Christian  parents  turn  out  so  badly  is,  that  they  are  taken 
to  be  of  the  world,  and  the  manner  and  spirit  of  the  house 
are  brought  down  to  be  of  the  world  too,  and  partly  for 
their  sake.  Take  them  as  disciples  of  Jesus,  to  be  care¬ 
fully  trained  for  Him;  prepared  to  no  mere  worldly  tastes, 


164  CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP  OF  CHILDREN 


and  fashions,  and  pleasures,  but  kept  in  purity,  saved  from 
the  world,  and  led  forth  under  all  tender  examples  of  obedi¬ 
ence  and  godly  living;  and  it  will  be  strange  if  that  nurture 
of  the  Lord  does  not  show  them  growing  up  in  the  faith,  to 
be  sons  and  daughters,  indeed,  of  the  Lord  Almighty. 


VIII 


THE  OUT-POPULATING  POWER  OF  THE 
CHRISTIAN  STOCK 

“And  did  he  not  make  one?  Yet  had  he  the  residue  of  the  Spirit. 
And  wherefore  one?  That  he  might  have  a  godly  seed.” — Malachi 
ii.  15. 

The  prophet  is  enforcing  here  a  strict  observance  of  mar¬ 
riage.  And  he  adverts,  in  his  argument,  to  the  single  and 
sole  state  of  the  first  human  pair,  as  a  standing  proof  against 
polygamy,  inconstancy,  and  all  similar  abuses  of  the  mar¬ 
riage  state.  God  was  not  spent,  he  says,  in  creating  a  sin¬ 
gle  man,  Adam,  and  a  single  woman,  Eve,  but  he  had  such 
a  residue,  or  overplus  of  creative  energy  left,  that  he  could 
have  created  millions  if  he  would.  Wherefore  then  did  he 
cease,  producing  only  just  one  man  and  woman,  and  no 
more?  The  answer  is — That  he  might  have  a  godly  seed. 
In  that  lies  the  reason,  he  declares,  of  God’s  economy  in 
this  family  institution.  We  perceive,  accordingly, 

That  God  is,  from  the  first,  looking  for  a  godly  seed;  or,  what 
is  nowise  different,  inserting  such  laws  of  population  that  piety 
itself  shall  finally  over-populate  the  world. 

To  be  more  explicit,  there  are  two  principal  modes  by 
which  the  kingdom  of  God  among  men  may  be,  and  is  to  be 
extended.  One  is  by  the  process  of  conversion,  and  the 
other  by  that  of  family  propagation;  one  by  gaining  over 
to  the  side  of  faith  and  piety,  the  other  by  the  populating 
force  of  faith  and  piety  themselves.  The  former  is  the 

165 


166 


THE  OUT-POPULATING  POWER 


grand  idea  that  has  taken  possession  of  the  churches  of  our 
times — they  are  going  to  convert  the  world.  They  have^ 
taken  hold  of  the  promise,  which  so  many  of  the  prophets 
have  given  out,  of  a  time  when  the  reign  of  Christ  shall  be 
universal,  extending  to  all  nations  and  peoples;  and  the  ex¬ 
pectation  is  that,  by  preaching  Christ  to  all  the  nations,  they 
will  finally  convert  them  and  bring  them  over  into  the  gospel 
fold.  Meantime  very  much  less,  or  almost  nothing,  is  made 
of  the  other  method,  viz.:  that  of  Christian  population.  In¬ 
deed,  as  we  are  now  looking  at  religion,  or  religious  charac¬ 
ter  and  experience,  we  can  hardly  find  a  place  for  any  such 
thought  as  a  possible  reproduction  thus  of  parental  charac¬ 
ter  and  grace  in  children.  They  must  come  in  by  choice, 
on  their  own  account;  they  must  be  converted  over  from  an 
outside  life  that  has  grown  to  maturity  in  sin.  Are  they 
not  individuals,  and  how  are  they  to  be  initiated  into  any 
thing  good  by  inheritance  and  before  choice?  It  is  as  if 
they  were  all  so  many  Melchisedecs  in  their  religious  nature, 
only  not  righteous  at  all — without  father,  without  mother, 
without  descent.  Descent  brings  them  nothing.  Born  of 
faith,  and  bosomed  in  it,  and  nurtured  by  it  still,  there  is 
yet  to  be  no  faith  begotten  in  them,  nor  so  much  as  a  con¬ 
tagion  even  of  faith  to  be  caught  in  their  garments. 

What  I  propose,  at  the  present  time,  is  to  restore,  if  pos¬ 
sible,  a  juster  impression  of  this  great  subject;  to  show  that 
conversion  over  to  the  church  is  not  the  only  way  of  increase; 
that  God  ordains  a  law  of  population  in  it  as  truly  as  he  does 
in  an  earthly  kingdom,  or  colony,  and  by  this  increase  from 
within,  quite  as  much  as  by  conversion  from  without,  de¬ 
signs  to  give  it,  finally,  the  complete  dominion  promised. 

Nor  let  any  one  be  repelled  from  this  truth,  or  set  against 
it,  by  the  prejudice  that  piety  is  and  must  be  a  matter  of 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  STOCK 


167 


individual  choice.  The  same  is  true  of  sin.  Many  of  us 
have  no  difficulty  in  saying  that  mankind  are  born  sinners. 
They  may  just  as  truly  and  properly  be  born  saints — it 
requires  the  self-active  power  to  be  just  as  far  developed  to 
commit  sin,  as  it  does  to  choose  obedience.  This  individual 
capacity  of  will  and  choice  is  one  that  matures  at  no  par¬ 
ticular  tick  of  the  clock,  but  it  comes  along  out  of  incipien- 
cies,  grows  by  imperceptible  increments,  and  takes  on  a 
character,  in  good  or  evil,  or  a  mixed  character  in  both,  so 
imperceptibly  and  gradually,  that  it  seems  to  be,  in  some 
sense,  prefashioned  by  what  the  birth  and  nurture  have  com¬ 
municated.  We  may  fitly  enough  call  this  character  a 
propagated  quality — in  strictest  metaphysical  definition, 
it  is  not;  in  sturdiest  fact  of  history,  or  practical  life,  it  is. 

Nor  let  any  one  be  diverted  from  the  truth  I  am  going  to 
assert,  by  imagining  that  a  propagated  piety  is,  of  course, 
a  piety  without  regeneration,  dispensing  with  what  Christ 
himself  declared  to  be  the  indispensable  need  of  every  hu¬ 
man  creature.  For  aught  that  appears,  regeneration  may, 
in  some  initial  and  profoundly  real  sense,  be  the  twin  ele¬ 
ment  of  propagation  itself.  The  parentage  may,  in  other 
words,  be  so  thoroughly  wrought  in  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
as  to  communicate  the  seeds  or  incipiencies  of  a  godly,  just 
as  it  communicates  the  seeds  of  a  depravated  and  disordered, 
character.  In  one  view,  the  child  will  be  regenerate  when 
he  is  born;  in  another  view,  he  will  not  be,  till  the  godly 
life  is  developed  in  his  own  personal  choice  and  liberty. 

Dismissing  these,  and  other  like  prepossessions,  let  us 
go  on  to  examine  some  of  the  evidences  by  which  this  doc¬ 
trine  of  church  population  is  to  be  substantiated. 

1.  I  name,  as  an  evidence,  the  very  important  fact  that 
in  the  matter  of  infant  baptism  and  infant  church  mem- 


168 


THE  OUT-POPULATING  POWER 


bership,  grounded  as  they  are  in  the  assumption  that  a  be¬ 
lieving  parentage  sanctifies  the  offspring,  God  is  seen  to 
frame  the  order  of  church  economy,  so  as  to  bring  in  the 
law  of  increase,  or  family  propagation;  looking  to  the  popu¬ 
lating  principle  for  growth,  just  as  the  founder  of  a  new 
colony,  on  some  foreign  shore,  would  look.  He  declares 
that  parents  are  to  be  parents  in  the  Lord,  and  children  to 
grow  up  in  the  nurture  of  the  Lord.  The  whole  scheme  of 
organic  unity  in  the  family  and  of  family  grace  in  the  church, 
is  just  what  it  should  be,  if  the  design  were  to  propagate 
religion,  not  by  conversions  only,  but  quite  as  much,  or  more, 
by  the  populating  force  embodied  in  it — just  that  force 
which,  in  all  states  and  communities,  is  known  to  be  the 
most  majestic  and  silently  creative  force  in  their  history. 

2.  It  is  a  matter  of  consequence  to  observe,  that  the 
Abrahamic  order  and  covenant  stood  upon  this  footing, 
formally  proposing  and  promising  to  make  the  father  of 
the  faithful  a  blessing  to  mankind,  by  and  through  the  mul¬ 
titude  of  his  offspring.  “Look  now,”  says  the  word  of 
promise,  “toward  heaven  and  tell  the  stars,  if  thou  be  able 
to  number  them.  So  shall  thy  seed  be.”  Again,  “I  will 
make  thee  a  father  of  many  nations.”  And  again,  “All 
the  nations  of  the  earth  shall  be  blessed  in  him.”  Neither 
was  it  to  be  the  only  blessing,  that  Jesus,  the  Saviour  of 
mankind,  was  to  be  born  of  this  honored  family.  “I  will 
make  thee  exceeding  fruitful,”  was  the  form  of  the  promise; 
and  the  blessing,  as  we  may  see,  by  all  the  modes  of  expres¬ 
sion  used,  was  to  turn  as  much  on  the  wonderful  populous¬ 
ness  of  the  stock,  overspreading  the  world,  as  it  was  on  the 
new-creating  grace  to  be  unfolded  in  it.  For  if  it  be  matter 
of  debate,  in  what  precise  manner  the  Christian  church  has 
connection  with  this  more  ancient  and  apparently  mere 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  STOCK 


169 


family  bond,  there  is  certainly  no  doubt  in  the  mind  of  the 
great  Christian  apostle,  that  there  is  a  real  and  valid  con¬ 
nection  of  some  kind,  such  that  the  promise  passes  and 
spreads,  and  is  to  get  its  fulfillment,  only  when  the  godly 
seed  has  filled  the  world.  The  spread  of  Christianity  is, 
in  his  view,  the  blessing  of  Abraham  come  on  the  Gentiles, 
through  Jesus  Christ.  These  Gentile  converts,  too,  he  calls 
the  seed  of  Abraham — “And  if  ye  be  Christ’s,  then  are  ye 
Abraham’s  seed  and  heirs  according  to  the  promise.”  He 
looks,  you  will  perceive,  on  the  Gentile  converts  as  being 
grafted  in  upon  the  ancient  stock;  which  also  he  expressly 
says,  in  another  place,  counting  them  to  be  so  unified  with 
Abraham,  as  to  be  the  outgrowth  of  his  person.  Just  as  the 
proselytes  were  taken  to  be  sons  and  daughters  of  Abra¬ 
ham,  naturalized  into  his  stock,  so  are  these  converts  to  be¬ 
come  the  channel  of  his  over-populating  force,  till  such  time 
as  the  natural  branches,  broken  off,  are  grafted  in  again. 
And,  in  this  view,  it  is  that  the  Gentile  converts  are  called 
“a  seed”  that  being  the  word  that  contemplates  the  fact 
of  their  multiplication  as  a  family  of  God. 

3.  It  is  an  argument  which  ought  to  be  convincing,  that 
the  universal  spread  of  the  gospel,  and  the  universal  reign 
of  Christian  truth — that  which  prophets  and  apostles  prom¬ 
ise,  and  which  we,  in  these  last  times,  have  taken  up  as  our 
fondest,  most  impelling  Christian  hope — plainly  enough 
never  can  be  compassed  by  the  process  of  adult  conversions, 
but  must  finally  be  reached,  if  reached  at  all,  by  the  popu¬ 
lating  forces  of  a  family  grace  in  the  church.  We  expect 
that,  in  that  day,  all  flesh  shall  see  the  salvation  of  God, 
and  that  every  thing  human  will  be  regenerated  by  it;  that 
the  glory  of  God  will  cover  the  earth  like  a  baptism  of  water 
— even  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea.  These  are  to  be  the 


170 


THE  OUT-POPULATING  POWER 


times  of  the  restitution  of  all  things.  God,  we  believe,  will 
put  his  laws  now  in  the  mind,  and  write  them  on  the  heart, 
and  “all  shall  know  him  from  the  least  to  the  greatest/’  I 
do  not  care  to  press  these  epithets  least  and  greatest — per¬ 
haps  there  is  no  reference  to  children  in  them.  It  would 
scarcely  make  the  text  more  significant  if  there  were;  for 
this  universal  triumph  of  the  word,  in  which  we  all  believe, 
this  imprinting  of  it  on  men’s  hearts,  all  over  the  world  in 
such  manner  as  to  make  the  day  of  glory — that  great  day 
of  light  which  figures  so  grandly  in  the  visions  of  God’s 
prophets  and  apostles,  and  is  promised  by  Christ  himself — 
such  a  day,  I  say,  can  plainly  enough  never  be  reached,  as 
long  as  the  children  of  the  world  grow  up  in  sin,  as  we  now 
assume  to  be  the  fact,  still  to  be  called  and  prayed  for  as 
now  and  preached  into  the  kingdom.  When  the  little  child 
shall  lead  forth  in  pairs  the  wolf  and  the  lamb,  the  leopard 
and  the  kid,  the  calf  and  the  young  lion;  when  the  sucking 
child  shall  play  on  the  hole  of  the  asp  unstung,  and  the 
weaned  child  shall  put  his  hand  unbitten  on  the  cockatrice’s 
den;  we  not  only  take  hold  of  it  as  the  prophet’s  meaning 
that  there  is  to  be  a  great  universal  mitigation  of  the  feroci¬ 
ties  of  appetite,  and  prey,  and  passion,  in  the  world,  but  that 
the  little  ones  are  to  have  their  part  in  the  joy,  and  be 
raised  in  dominion  by  that  all-renewing  grace  which  has 
now  restored  and  imparadised  the  world.  Otherwise  our 
day  of  glory  would  be  such  a  kind  of  jubilee  as  shows  the 
adult  souls  only  of  the  race  to  be  gathered  into  the  kingdom, 
while  the  poor,  unripe  sinners  of  childhood,  a  full  fourth  in 
the  total  number,  are  in  no  sense,  in  it,  but  are  waiting  their 
conversion-time  on  the  outside !  This  is  not  our  millennial 
day;  we  have  no  such  hope. 

We  conceive  that  Christ  will  then  overspread  all  souls 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  STOCK 


171 


with  his  glory,  and  that  children,  filled  according  to  their 
age  and  measure  with  the  divine  motions  of  grace,  will  be 
unfolding  the  heavenly  beauty,  as  they  advance  in  years, 
even  as  the  flowers  unfold  their  colors  in  the  sun.  These 
colors  no  one  sees  in  the  root,  and  the  clear,  transparent  sap 
it  circulates,  and  yet  the  color  is  there.  Just  so  will  God, 
in  that  great  day  of  grace,  bring  out  of  infancy  and  child¬ 
hood,  sanctifyingly  touched  by  his  Spirit,  what  creates  them 
children  of  God,  as  truly  as  their  parents,  though  too  subtle 
to  be  seen,  or  defined,  till  it  has  blushed  into  color,  in  the 
sunlight  of  their  intelligence  in  the  truth.  Such  a  day  of 
glory  then  contemplates  a  great  in-birth  of  sanctification, 
or  renewing  life.  Conversions  from  without  are  to  have 
their  part  in  preparing  it,  but  the  consummation  hoped  for  is 
even  impossible,  as  regards  a  third  or  fourth  part  of  the  race, 
save  as  it  is  reached  by  a  populating  process  which  enters 
them  into  life  itself,  through  the  gate  of  a  sanctified  infancy 
and  childhood. 

4.  Consider  a  very  important  fact  in  human  physiology 
which  goes  far  to  explain,  or  take  away  the  strangeness  and 
seeming  extravagance  of  the  truth  I  am  endeavoring  to  es¬ 
tablish,  viz.,  that  qualities  of  education,  habit,  feeling,  and 
character,  have  a  tendency  always  to  grow  in,  by  long  con¬ 
tinuance,  and  become  thoroughly  inbred  in  the  stock.  We 
meet  humble  analogies  of  this  fact  in  the  domestic  ani¬ 
mals.  The  operations  to  which  they  are  trained,  and  in 
which  they  become  naturalized  by  habit,  become  predispo¬ 
sitions,  in  a  degree,  in  their  offspring;  and  they,  in  their 
turn,  are  as  much  more  easily  trained  on  that  account.  The 
next  generation  are  trained  still  more  easily,  till  what  was 
first  made  habitual,  finally  becomes  functional  in  the  stock, 
and  almost  no  training  is  wanted.  That  which  was  incul- 


172 


THE  OUT-POPULATING  POWER 


cated  by  practice  passes  into  a  tendency,  and  descends  as 
a  natural  gift,  or  endowment.  The  same  thing  is  observa¬ 
ble,  on  a  large  scale,  in  the  families  of  mankind.  A  savage 
race  is  a  race  bred  into  low  living,  and  a  faithless,  bloody 
character.  The  instinct  of  law,  society,  and  order  is  sub¬ 
stituted,  finally,  by  the  overgrown  instinct  of  prey,  and  the 
race  is  lost  to  any  real  capacity  of  social  regeneration;  un¬ 
less  they  can  somehow  be  kept  in  ward,  and  a  process  of 
training,  long  enough  to  breed  in  what  has  been  lost.  A 
race  of  slaves  becomes  a  physiologically  servile  race  in  the 
same  way.  And  so  it  is,  in  part,  that  civilization  descends 
from  one  generation  to  another.  It  is  not  merely  that  laws, 
social  modes,  and  instrumentalities  of  education  descend, 
and  that  so  the  new  sprung  generations  are  fashioned  after 
birth,  by  the  forms  and  principles  and  causes  into  which 
they  have  been  set,  but  it  is  that  the  very  type  of  the  inborn 
quality  is  a  civilized  type.  The  civilization  is,  in  great  part, 
an  inbred  civility.  There  is  a  something  functional  in  them, 
which  is  itself  configured  to  the  state  of  art,  order,  law,  and 
property. 

Now  if  it  be  true  that  what  gets  power  in  any  race,  by  a 
habit  or  a  process  of  culture,  tends  by  a  fixed  law  of  nature 
to  become  a  propagated  quality,  and  passes  by  descent  as  a 
property  inbred  in  the  stock;  if  in  this  way  whole  races  of 
men  are  cultivated  into  properties  that  are  peculiar — off 
into  a  savage  character,  down  into  a  servile  or  a  mercenary, 
up  into  civilization  or  a  high  social  state — what  is  to  be  the 
effect  of  a  thoroughly  Christian  fatherhood  and  motherhood, 
continued  for  a  long  time  in  the  successive  generations  of  a 
family?  What  can  it  be  but  a  general  mitigation  of  the  bad 
points  of  the  stock,  and  a  more  and  more  completely  inbred 
piety.  The  children  of  such  a  stock  are  born,  not  of  the 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  STOCK 


173 


flesh  only,  or  the  mere  natural  life  of  their  parentage,  but 
they  are  born,  in  a  sense  most  emphatic,  of  the  Spirit  also; 
for  this  parentage  is  differed,  as  we  are  supposing,  age  by 
age,  from  its  own  mere  nature  in  Adam,  by  the  inhabiting 
grace  of  a  supernatural  salvation.  Physiologically  speak¬ 
ing,  they  are  tempered  by  this  grace,  and  it  is  all  the  while 
tending  to  become  in  some  sense,  an  inbred  quality.  IPence 
the  very  frequent  remark — “How  great  a  privilege  and  order 
of  nobility  to  be  descended  of  a  pious  ancestry  I”  It  is  the 
blessing  that  is  to  descend  to  the  thousandth  generation  of 
them  that  love  God  and  keep  his  commandments. 

In  this  view  it  is  to  be  expected,  as  the  life  of  Christian 
piety  becomes  more  extended  in  the  earth,  and  the  Spirit 
of  God  obtains  a  living  power  in  the  successive  generations, 
more  and  more  complete,  that  finally  the  race  itself  will  be 
so  thoroughly  regenerated  as  to  have  a  genuinely  populat¬ 
ing  power  in  faith  and  godliness.  By  a  kind  of  ante-natal 
and  post-natal  nurture  combined,  the  new-born  generations 
will  be  started  into  Christian  piety,  and  the  world  itself 
over-populated  and  taken  possession  of  by  a  truly  sanctified 
stock.  This  I  conceive  to  be  the  expectation  of  Christian¬ 
ity.  Not  that  the  bad  heritage  of  depravity  will  cease, 
but  that  the  second  Adam  will  get  into  power  with  the  first, 
and  be  entered  seminally  into  the  same  great  process  of 
propagated  life.  And  this  fulfills  that  primal  desire  of  the 
world’s  Creator  and  Father,  of  which  the  prophet  speaks — • 
“That  he  might  have  a  godly  seed.” 

And  let  no  one  be  offended  by  this,  as  if  it  supposed  a  pos¬ 
sible  in-growth  and  propagation  of  piety,  by  mere  natural 
laws  and  conditions.  What  higher  ground  of  supernatural¬ 
ism  can  be  taken,  than  that  which  supposes  a  capacity  in 
the  Incarnate  Word,  and  Sanctifying  Spirit,  to  penetrate  our 


174 


THE  OUT-POPULATING  POWER 


fallen  nature,  at  a  point  so  deep  as  to  cover  the  whole  spread 
of  the  fall,  and  be  a  grace  of  life,  traveling  outward  from  the 
earliest,  most  latent  germs  of  our  human  development.  It 
is  only  saying,  with  a  meaning — “My  substance  was  not  hid 
from  Thee,  when  I  was  made  in  secret,  and  curiously  wrought 
in  the  lowest  parts  of  the  earth.”  Or,  in  still  another  view, 
it  is  only  conceiving  that  those  sporadic  cases  of  sanctifica¬ 
tion  from  the  womb,  of  which  the  Scripture  speaks,  such  as 
that  of  Samuel,  Jeremiah,  and  John,  are  to  finally  become 
the  ordinary  and  common  fact  of  family  development. 

In  such  cases,  the  faith  or  piety  of  a  single  pair,  or  possi¬ 
bly  of  the  mother  alone,  begets  a  heavenly  mold  in  the  pre¬ 
dispositions  of  the  offspring,  so  that,  as  it  is  born  of  sin,  it 
is  also  born  of  a  heavenly  grace.  If  then  we  suppose  the 
heavenly  grace  to  have  such  power,  in  the  long  continuing 
process  of  ages,  as  to  finally  work  the  general  stock  of  parent¬ 
age  into  its  own  heavenly  mold,  far  enough  to  prepare  a 
sanctified  offspring  for  the  world,  what  higher,  grander  fact 
of  Christian  supernaturalism  could  be  asserted?  Nor  is 
it  any  thing  more  of  a  novelty  than  to  say,  that  “where 
sin  abounded,  grace  did  much  more  abound.”  The  concep¬ 
tion  is  one  that  simply  fulfills  what  Baxter,  Hopkins,  and 
others,  were  apparently  struggling  after,*  when  contriving 
how  to  let  the  grace  of  God  in  our  salvation,  match  itself 
by  the  hereditary  damage,  or  depravation,  that  descends 
upon  us  from  our  parentage,  and  the  organic  unity  of  our 
nature  as  a  race.  And  probably  enough  they  were  put 
upon  this  mode  of  thought,  by  the  familiar  passage  of  Paul 
just  referred  to. 

Christianity  then  has  a  power,  as  we  discover,  to  prepare 
a  godly  seed.  It  not  only  takes  hold  of  the  world  by  its 
*  See  quotations  from  these  writers  in  the  last  Discourse. 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  STOCK 


175 


converting  efficacy,  but  it  has  a  silent  force  that  is  much 
stronger  and  more  reliable;  it  moves,  by  a  kind  of  destiny, 
in  causes  back  of  all  the  eccentric  and  casual  operations  of 
mere  individual  choice,  preparing,  by  a  gradual  growing 
in  of  grace,  to  become  the  great  populating  motherhood  of 
the  world.  In  this  conviction,  we  shall  be  strengthened— 

5.  By  the  well-known  fact,  that  the  populating  power  of 
any  race,  or  stock,  is  increased  according  to  the  degree  of 
personal  and  religious  character  to  which  it  has  attained. 
Good  principles  and  habits,  intellectual  culture,  domestic 
virtue,  industry,  order,  law,  faith — all  these  go  immediately 
to  enhance  the  rate  and  capacity  of  population.  They 
make  a  race  powerful,  not  in  the  mere  military  sense,  but  in 
one  that,  by  century-long  reaches  of  populating  force,  lives 
down  silently  every  mere  martial  competitor.  Any  people 
that  is  physiologically  advanced  in  culture,  though  it  be 
only  in  a  degree,  beyond  another  which  is  mingled  with  it 
on  strictly  equal  terms,  is  sure  to  live  down  and  finally  live 
out  its  inferior.  Nothing  can  save  the  inferior  race  but  a 
ready  and  pliant  assimilation. 

The  promise  to  Abraham  depended,  doubtless,  on  this 
fact  for  its  fulfillment.  God  was  to  make  his  family  fruit¬ 
ful,  above  others,  by  imparting  Himself  to  it,  and  so  infus¬ 
ing  a  higher  tone  of  personal  life.  Hence  also  the  grand  re¬ 
ligious  fact  that  this  race  unfolded  a  populating  power  so 
remarkable.  Going  down  into  Egypt,  as  a  starving  family, 
it  begins  to  be  evident  in  about  four  hundred  years,  that 
they  are  over-populating  the  great  kingdom  of  Egypt  itself. 
“The  children  of  Israel  were  fruitful  and  increased  abun¬ 
dantly,  and  multiplied  and  waxed  exceeding  mighty,  and  the 
land  was  filled  with  them.”  Till  finally  the  jealousy  of  the 
throne  was  awakened,  and  the  king  began  to  say — “Behold 


176 


THE  OUT-POPULATING  POWER 


the  people  of  the  children  of  Israel  are  more  and  mightier 
than  we!” 

Afterwards  little  Palestine  itself  wras  like  a  swarm  of 
bees;  building  great  cities,  raising  great  armies,  and  dis¬ 
playing  all  the  tokens,  age  upon  age,  of  a  great  and  populous 
empire.  So  great  was  the  fruitfulness  of  the  stock,  com¬ 
pared  with  other  nations  of  the  time,  owing  to  the  higher 
personality  unfolded  in  them,  by  their  only  partial  and 
very  crude  training,  in  a  monotheistic  religion. 

And  again,  at  a  still  later  time,  when  the  nation  itself  is 
dismembered,  and  thousands  of  the  people  are  driven  off 
into  captivity,  we  find  that  when  the  great  king  of  Persia 
had  given  out  an  edict  of  extermination  against  them,  and 
would  like  to  recall  it  but  can  not,  because  of  the  absurd 
maxim  that  what  the  king  has  decreed  must  not  be  changed, 
he  has  only  to  publish  another  decree,  that  they  shall  have 
it  as  their  right  to  stand  for  their  lives,  and  that  is  enough 
to  insure  their  complete  immunity.  “They  gathered  them¬ 
selves  together  in  their  cities,  and  throughout  all  the  prov¬ 
inces,  and  no  man  could  withstand  them,  for  the  fear  of  them 
fell  upon  all  people.”  In  which  we  may  see  how  this  captive 
race  had  multiplied  and  spread  themselves,  in  this  incredi¬ 
bly  short  time,  through  all  the  great  kingdom  of  the  Medo- 
Persian  kings. 

Or  we  may  take  a  more  modern  illustration,  drawn  from 
the  comparative  history  of  the  Christian  and  Mohamme¬ 
dan  races.  The  Christian  development  begins  at  an  older 
date,  and  the  Mohammedan  at  a  later.  One  is  a  propaga¬ 
tion  by  moral  and  religious  influences,  at  least  in  part;  the 
other  a  propagation  by  military  force.  Both  have  religious 
ideas  and  aims,  but  the  main  distinction  is  that  one  is  taken 
hold  of  by  religion  as  being  a  contribution  to  the  free  per- 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  STOCK 


177 


sonal  nature  of  souls;  and  the  other  is  taken  hold  of  by  a 
religion  whose  grip  is  the  strong  grip  of  fate.  For  a  time, 
this  latter  spread  like  a  fire  in  the  forest,  propagated  by  the 
terrible  sword  of  predestination,  and  it  even  seemed  about 
to  override  the  world.  But  it  by  and  by  began  to  appear, 
that  one  religion  was  creating  and  the  other  uncreating 
manhood;  one  toning  up  a  great  and  powerful  character, 
and  the  other  toning  down,  steeping  in  lethargy,  the  races 
it  began  to  inspire;  till  finally  we  can  now  see  as  distinctly 
as  possible,  that  one  is  pouring  on  great  tides  of  population, 
creating  a  great  civilization,  and  great  and  powerful  nations; 
the  other,  falling  away  into  a  feeble,  half-depopulated,  al¬ 
ways  decaying  state,  that  augurs  final  extinction  at  no  dis¬ 
tant  period.  Now  the  fact  is  that  these  two  great  religions 
of  the  world  had  each,  in  itself,  its  own  law  of  population 
from  the  beginning,  and  it  was  absolutely  certain,  whether 
it  could  be  seen  or  not,  that  Christianity  would  finally  live 
down  Mohammedanism,  and  completely  expurgate  the 
world  of  it.  The  campaigning  centuries  of  European  chiv¬ 
alry,  pressing  it  with  crusade  after  crusade,  could  not  bring 
it  under;  but  the  majestic  populating  force  of  Christian 
faith  and  nurture  can  even  push  it  out  of  the  world,  as  in 
the  silence  of  a  dew-fall. 

What  a  lesson  also  could  be  derived,  in  the  same  manner, 
from  a  comparison  of  the  populating  forces  of  the  Puritan 
stock  in  this  country,  and  of  the  inferior,  superstitious,  half 
Christian  stock  and  nurture  of  the  South  American  states. 
And  the  reason  of  the  difference  is  that  Christianity,  having 
a  larger,  fuller,  more  new-creating  force  in  one,  gives  it  a 
populating  force  as  much  superior. 

How  this  advantage  accrues,  and  is,  at  some  future  time, 
to  be  more  impressively  revealed  than  now,  it  is  not  difficult 


178 


THE  OUT-POPULATING  POWER 


to  see.  Let  the  children  of  Christian  parents  grow  up,  all, 
as  partakers  in  their  grace,  which  is  the  true  Christian  idea, 
and  the  law  of  family  increase  they  are  in,  is,  by  the  sup¬ 
position,  so  far  brought  into  the  church,  and  made  operative 
there.  And  then  comes  in  also  the  additional  fact,  that 
there  are  causes  and  conditions  of  increase  now  operative 
in  the  church  which  exist  nowhere  else. 

Here,  for  example,  there  will  be  a  stronger  tide  of  health 
than  elsewhere.  In  the  world  without,  multitudes  are 
perishing  continually  by  vice  and  extravagance,  and,  when 
they  do  not  perish  themselves,  they  are  always  entailing 
the  effects  of  their  profligacy  on  the  half-endowed  constitu¬ 
tion  of  their  children.  Meantime,  in  the  truly  Christian 
life,  there  is  a  good  keeping  of  temperance,  a  steady  sway 
of  the  passions,  a  robust  equability  and  courage,  and  the 
whole  domain  of  the  soul  is  kept  more  closely  to  God’s 
order;  which  again  is  the  way  of  health,  and  implies  a  higher 
law  of  increase. 

Wealth,  again,  will  be  unfolded  more  rapidly  under  the 
condition  of  Christian  living  than  elsewhere;  and  wealth 
enough  to  yield  a  generous  supply  of  the  common  wants  of 
life,  is  another  cause  that  favors  population.  True  piety  — 
is  itself  a  principle  of  industry  and  application  to  business. 

It  subordinates  the  love  of  show  and  all  the  tendencies  to 
extravagance.  It  rules  those  licentious  passions  that  war 
with  order  and  economy.  It  generates  a  faithful  character, 
which  is  the  basis  of  credit,  as  credit,  of  prosperity.  Hence 
it  is  that  upon  the  rocky,  stubborn  soil,  under  the  harsh  and 
frowning  skies  of  our  New  England,  we  behold  so  much  of 
high  prosperity,  so  much  of  physical  well-being,  and  orna¬ 
ment.  And  the  wealth  created  is  diffused  about  as  evenly 
as  the  piety.  A  true  Christian  society  has  mines  opened, 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  STOCK 


179 


thus,  in  its  own  habits  and  principles.  And  the  wealth  ac¬ 
cruing  is  power  in  every  direction,  power  in  production,  en¬ 
terprise,  education,  colonization,  influence,  and  consequent 
popular  increase. 

There  will  also  be  more  talent  unfolded  in  a  Christian 
people,  and  talent  also  takes  the  helm  of  causes  everywhere. 
-Christian  piety  is  itself  a  kind  of  holy  development,  enlarg¬ 
ing  every  way  the  souks  dimensions.  It  will  also  be  found 
that  Christian  families  abound  with  influences,  specially 
favorable  to  the  awakening  of  the  intellectual  principle  in 
childhood.  Religion  itself  is  thoughtful.  It  carries  the 
child’s  mind  over  directly  to  unknown  worlds,  fills  the  un¬ 
derstanding  with  the  sublimest  questions,  and  sends  the 
imagination  abroad  to  occupy  itself  where  angels’  wings 
would  tire.  The  child  of  a  Christian  family  is  thus  un¬ 
sensed,  at  the  earliest  moment,  and  put  into  mental  action; 
this,  too,  under  the  healthy  and  genial  influence  of  Chris¬ 
tian  principle.  Every  believing  soul,  too,  is  exalted  and 
empowered  by  union  to  God.  His  judgment  is  clarified, N 
his  reason  put  in  harmony  with  truth,  his  emotions  swelled 
in  volume,  his  imagination  fired  by  the  object  of  his  faith. 
The  church,  in  short,  is  God’s  university,  and  it  lies  in  her 
foundation  as  a  school  of  spiritual  life,  to  energize  all  ca¬ 
pacity,  and  make  her  sons  a  talented  and  powerful  race. 

Here,  too,  are  the  great  truths,  and  all  the  grandest, 
most  fruitful  ideas  of  existence.  Here  will  spring  up  science, 
discovery,  invention.  The  great  books  will  be  born  here, 
and  the  highest,  noblest,  most  quickening  character  will 
here  be  fashioned.  Popular  liberties  and  the  rights  of  per¬ 
sons  will  here  be  asserted.  Commerce  will  go  forth  hence, 
to  act  the  preluding  of  the  Christian  love,  in  the  universal 
fellowship  of  trade. 


180 


THE  OUT-POPULATING  POWER 


And  so  we  see,  by  this  rapid  glance  along  the  inventories 
of  Christian  society,  that  all  manner  of  causes  are  included 
in  it,  that  will  go  to  fine  the  organization,  raise  the  robust¬ 
ness,  swell  the  volume,  multiply  the  means,  magnify  the 
power  of  the  Christian  body.  It  stands  among  the  other 
bodies  and  religions,  just  as  any  advanced  race,  the  Saxon 
for  example,  stands  among  the  feebler,  wilder  races,  like 
the  Aborigines  of  our  continent;  having  so  much  power  of 
every  kind  that  it  puts  them  in  shadow,  -weakens  them,  lives 
them  down,  rolling  its  over-populating  tides  across  them, 
and  sweeping  them  away,  as  by  a  kind  of  doom.  Just  so 
there  is,  in  the  Christian  church,  a  grand  law  of  increase 
by  which  it  is  rolling  out  and  spreading  over  the  world. 
Whether  the  feebler  and  more  abject  races  are  going  to  be 
regenerated  and  raised  up,  is  already  very  much  of  a  ques- 
.  tion.  What  if  it  should  be  God’s  plan  to  people  the  world 
with  better  and  finer  material  ?  Certain  it  is,  whatever  ex¬ 
pectations  we  may  indulge,  that  there  is  a  tremendous  over¬ 
bearing  surge  of  power  in  the  Christian  nations,  which,  if 
the  others  are  not  speedily  raised  to  some  vastly  higher  ca¬ 
pacity,  will  inevitably  submerge  and  bury  them  forever. 
These  great  populations  of  Christendom — what  are  they 
doing,  but  throwing  out  their  colonies  on  every  side,  and 
populating  themselves,  if  I  may  so  speak,  into  the  posses¬ 
sion  of  all  countries  and  climes?  By  this  doom  of  increase, 
the  stone  that  was  cut  out  without  hands,  shows  itself  to 
be  a  very  peculiar  stone,  viz.:  a  growing  stone,  that  is  fast 
becoming  a  great  mountain,  and  preparing,  as  the  vision 
shows,  to  fill  the  whole  earth. 

We  are  not,  of  course,  to  suspend  our  efforts  to  convert 
the  heathen  nations — we  shall  never  become  a  thoroughly 
regenerate  stock,  save  as  we  are  trained  up  into  such  emi- 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  STOCK 


181 


nence,  by  our  works  of  mercy  to  mankind.  It  is  for  God 
to  say  what  races  are  to  be  finally  submerged  and  lost,  and 
not  for  us.  Meantime,  we  are  to  gain  over  and  save  as 
many  as  possible  by  conversion,  and  so  to  hasten  the  day  of 
promise.  And  what  feebler  and  more  pitiful  conceit  could 
we  fall  into,  than  to  assume  that  we  have  the  grand,  over- 
populating  grace  in  our  own  stock,  and  sit  down  thus  to 
see  it  accomplish  by  mere  propagation,  that  which  of  itself 
supposes  a  glorious  inbred  habit  of  faith,  and  sacrifice,  and 
heavenly  charity.  I  only  say  that,  when  we  set  ourselves 
to  the  great  work  of  converting  the  world,  we  are  to  see 
that  we  do  not  miscondition  the  state  of  childhood,  and 
throw  quite  away  from  us,  meantime,  all  the  mighty  advan¬ 
tages  that  God  designs  to  give  us,  in  this  other  manner; 
viz.,  in  the  religious  nurture  and  growth  of  the  godly  seed. 

Once  more,  it  is  a  consideration  that  will  have  great  weight 
with  all  deeply  thoughtful  persons,  that  the  vindication  of 
God  in  sin,  suffering,  punishment,  and  all  evil  pertaining 
to  the  race,  probably  depends,  to  a  great  degree,  on  just  the 
truth  I  am  here  endeavoring  to  establish.  How  constantly 
is  the  question  raised,  why  God,  as  an  infinitely  good  and 
gracious  Father,  should  put  on  foot  such  a  scheme  of  exis¬ 
tence  as  this;  one  that  unites  such  oppressive  disadvan¬ 
tages,  and  is  to  be  such  a  losing  concern?  We  begin  life, 
it  is  said,  with  constitutions  depravated  and  poisoned,  and 
come  thus  into  choice  with  predispositions  that  are  dam¬ 
aged  even  beforehand.  Idolatry,  darkness,  and  guilt  over¬ 
spread  the  world,  in  this  manner,  from  age  to  age,  and  the 
vast  majorities  of  the  race,  rotting  away  thus  into  death 
under  sin,  are  being  all  the  while  precipitated  into  a  wretched 
eternity,  which  is  their  end;  for  they  go  hence  in  a  state 
visibly  disqualified  for  the  enjoyment,  either  of  themselves. 


182 


THE  OUT-POPULATING  POWER 


or  of  God.  The  picture  is  a  very  dark  one,  though  I  feel  a 
decided  confidence  that  every  single  part  of  God’s  counsel 
in  it  can  be  sufficiently  vindicated.  But  this  is  not  a  mat¬ 
ter  in  the  compass  of  my  present  inquiry,  except  so  far  as 
the  general  difficulty  is  relieved  by  the  possibility  and  pros¬ 
pect  of  great  future  advantages  that  are  to  accrue,  in  the 
fact  of  a  grand  over-populating  righteousness,  which  is 
finally  to  change  the  aspect  of  the  whole  question.  We  are 
not  to  assume,  with  many,  that  the  world  is  now  just  upon 
its  close,  but  to  look  upon  it  as  barely  having  opened  its 
first  chapter  of  history.  Its  real  value,  and  what  is  really 
to  come  of  it,  probably  does  not  even  yet  begin  to  appear. 
When  its  propagations  cease  to  be  mere  propagations  of 
evil,  or  of  moral  damage  and  disaster,  and  become  propaga¬ 
tions  of  sanctified  life,  and  ages  of  life;  when  the  numbers, 
talents,  comforts,  powers  of  the  immense  godly  popula¬ 
tions  are  increased  to  more  than  a  hundredfold  what  they 
now  are;  and  when,  at  some  incomputable  distance  of  time, 
whose  rate  of  approach  is  only  hinted  by  the  geologic  ages  of 
the  planet,  they  look  back  upon  us  as  cotemporaries  almost 
of  Adam,  and  forward  through  ages  of  blessing  just  begun, 
beholding  so  many  worlds  full  of  regenerated  mind  and 
character,  pouring  in  from  hence  to  over-people,  as  it  were, 
eternity  itself;  they  will  certainly  have  a  very  different 
opinion  of  the  scheme  of  existence  from  that  which  we  most 
naturally  take  up  now.  Then  it  will  be  confessed  that  the 
nurture  of  the  Lord  has  meaning  and  force  enough  to  change 
the  aspect  of  every  thing  in  God’s  plan. .  Our  scheme  of 
propagated  and  derivative  life  is  no  longer  a  scheme  of  dis¬ 
advantage,  but  a  mode  of  induction  that  gives  to  every  soul 
the  noblest,  safest  beginning  possible.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  we  cling  to  the  present  way  and  state  as  the  measure  of  all 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  STOCK 


183 


highest  possibilities,  and  expect  to  go  on  converting  over, 
out  of  heathenism  and  death,  the  sturdy,  grown-up  aliens 
of  depravity,  it  will  be  a  most  difficult — always  growing 
more  and  more  difficult — thing  to  vindicate  the  ways  of  God 
in  what  he  has  put  upon  the  world.  Shall  we  miss,  and  give 
it  to  the  future  ages  to  miss,  a  vindication  of  God’s  way  so 
inspiring  in  itself  and  so  often  promised  in  his  word  ? 

Having  reached  this  closing  point  or  consummation  of 
the  doctrine  of  nurture,  we  are  able,  I  think,  to  see  some¬ 
thing  of  the  dignity  there  is  in  it.  How  trivial,  unnatural, 
weak,  and,  at  the  same  time,  violent,  in  comparison,  is  that 
overdone  scheme  of  individualism,  which  knows  the  race 
only  as  mere  units  of  will  and  personal  action;  dissolves 
even  families  into  monads;  makes  no  account  of  organic 
relations  and  uses;  and  expects  the  world  to  be  finally  sub¬ 
dued  by  adult  conversions,  when  growing  up  still,  as  before, 
in  all  the  younger  tiers  of  life,  toward  a  mere  convertible 
state  of  adult  ungodliness.  Such  a  scheme  gives  a  most  un- 
genial  and  forlorn  aspect  to  the  family.  It  makes  the 
church  a  mere  gathering  in  of  adult  atoms,  to  be  increased 
only  by  the  gathering  in  of  other  and  more  numerous  adult 
atoms.  It  very  nearly  makes  the  scheme  of  existence  itself 
an  abortion;  finding  no  great  law  of  propagative  good  and 
mercy  in  it,  and  taking  quite  away  the  possibility  and  pros¬ 
pect  of  that  sublime  vindication  of  God  which  is  finally  to 
be  developed,  and  by  which  God’s  way  in  the  creation  is  to 
be  finally  crowned  with  all  highest  honors  of  counsel  and 
beneficence.  Opposite  to  this,  we  have  seen  how  it  is  God’s 
plan,  by  ties  of  organic  unity  and  nurture,  to  let  one  gen¬ 
eration  extend  itself  into  and  over  another,  in  the  order  of 
grace,  just  as  it  does  in  the  order  of  nature;  to  let  us  expect 


184 


THE  OUT-POPULATING  POWER 


the  growing  up  of  children  in  the  Lord,  even  as  their  parents 
are  to  be  parents  in  the  Lord,  and  are  set  to  bring  them  up 
in  the  nurture  of  the  Lord;  on  this  ground  of  anticipation, 
permitting  us  to  apply  the  seal  of  our  faith  to  them,  as  being 
incipiently  in  the  quickening  of  our  faith,  even  before  they 
have  intelligence  to  act  it,  and  consciously  choose  it;  so  ac¬ 
cepting  them  to  be  members  of  the  church,  as  being  pre¬ 
sumptively  in  the  life  of  the  church;  in  this  manner  incor¬ 
porating  in  the  church  a  great  law  of  grace  and  sanctifying 
power,  by  which  finally  the  salvation  will  become  an  inbred 
life  and  populating  force,  mighty  enough  to  overlive,  and 
finally  to  completely  people  the  world.  And  this  is  what 
we  call  the  day  of  glory.  It  lies,  to  a  great  degree,  in  the 
scheme  of  Christian  nurture  itself,  and  is  possible  only  as  a 
consummation  of  that  scheme.  If  I  rightly  conceive  the 
gospel  work  and  plan,  this  is  the  regeneration  [TraXiyyevveo-La] 
which  our  Lord. promises,  viz.:  that  he  will  reclaim  and  re¬ 
sanctify  the  great  principle  of  reproductive  order  and  life, 
and  people,  at  last,  the  world  with  a  godly  seed. 

The  church,  as  being  made  up  of  souls  that  are  born  of  the 
Spirit,  is  a  new  supernatural  order  thus  in  humanity;  a 
spiritual  nation,  we  may  conceive,  that  was  founded  by  a 
colony  from  the  skies.  It  alights  upon  our  globe  as  its  char¬ 
tered  territory.  Can  it  overspread  the  whole  planet  and 
take  possession?  We  see  that  it  can  unfold  more  of  health, 
wealth,  talent,  than  the  present  living  races  of  inhabitants. 
It  has  within  itself  a  stronger  law  of  population,  as  well  as  a 
mighty  power  to  win  over  and  assimilate  the  nations.  Its 
people  have  more  truth,  beauty,  weight  of  character  to  exalt 
their  predominance.  And,  wThat  is  more,  God  is  in  them 
by  his  all-informing,  all-energizing  Spirit,  to  be  Himself  un¬ 
folded  in  their  history,  and  make  it  powerful.  Not  to  be- 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  STOCK 


185 


lieve  that  the  Heavenly  Colony,  thus  constituted  and  en¬ 
dowed,  will  finally  overspread  and  fill  the  world,  is  to  deny 
causes,  their  effects,  and  to  quite  invert  the  natural  order 
of  strength  and  weakness.  God,  too,  has  testified  in  regard 
to  this  branch  of  his  planting — “They  shall  inherit  the 
land.” 

It  is  very  obvious  that  this  general  view  of  Christian 
nurture  and  its  effects  is  one  that,  becoming  really  installed 
in  our  faith,  and  the  aims  of  our  piety,  would  induce  im¬ 
portant  modifications  in  our  Christian  practice,  and  change, 
to  a  considerable  degree,  the  modes  of  our  religious  demon¬ 
stration.  Our  over-intense  individualism  carries  with  it 
an  immense  loss  of  feeling,  affection,  sentiment,  which 
hardens  the  aspect  of  every  thing,  and  dries  away  the  sweet 
charities  and  tender  affections  that  would  grace  the  older 
generations  of  souls,  when  conceiving  that  the  younger  live 
in  them,  and  are  somehow  folded  in  their  personality.  We 
not  only  lose  our  children  under  this  atomizing  scheme  of 
piety,  which  is  a  loss  we  can  not  afford,  but  a  certain  dis¬ 
proportion  is  induced,  which  distempers  all  our  efforts  and 
demonstrations. 

One  principal  reason  why  we  are  so  often  deficient  in 
character,  or  outward  beauty,  is,  that  piety  begins  too  late 
in  life,  having  thus  to  maintain  a  perpetual  and  unequal  * 
war  with  previous  habit.  If  it  was  not  true  of  Paul,  it  is 
yet  too  generally  true,  that  one  born  out  of  due  time  will  be 
found  out  of  due  time,  more  often  than  he  should  be,  after¬ 
wards — unequal,  inconsistent  with  himself,  acting  the  old 
man  instead  of  the  new.  Having  the  old  habit  to  war  with, 
it  is  often  too  strong  for  him.  To  make  a  graceful  and  com¬ 
plete  Christian  character,  it  needs  itself  to  be  the  habit  of 


186 


THE  OUT-POPULATING  POWER 


existence;  not  a  grape  grafted  on  a  bramble.  And  this,  it 
will  be  seen,  requires  a  Christian  childhood  in  the  subject. 
Having  this,  the  gracious  or  supernatural  character  be¬ 
comes  itself  more  nearly  natural,  and  possesses  the  peculiar 
charm  of  naturalness,  which  is  necessary  to  the  highest 
moral  beauty. 

It  results  also  from  our  mistaken  views  of  Christian  train¬ 
ing,  that  we  fall  into  a  notion  of  religion  that  is  mechanical. 
We  thrust  our  children  out  of  the  covenant  first,  and  insist, 
in  spite  of  it,  that  they  shall  grow  up  in  the  same  spiritual 
state  as  if  their  father  and  mother  were  heathens.  Then 
we  go  out,  at  least  on  certain  occasions,  to  convert  them  back, 
as  if  they  actually  were  heathens.  Our  only  idea  of  increase 
is  of  that  which  accrues  by  means  of  a  certain  abrupt  techni¬ 
cal  experience.  Led  away  thus  from  all  thought  of  internal 
growth  in  the  church,  efforts  to  secure  conversions  take  an 
external  character,  becoming  gospel  campaigns.  Accretion 
displaces  growth.  The  church  is  gathered  as  a  foundling 
hospital;  and  lest  it  should  not  be  such,  its  own  children 
are  reduced  to  foundlings.  Immediate  repentance  pro¬ 
claimed,  insisted  on,  and  realized  in  an  abrupt  change, 
proper  only  to  those  who  are  indeed  aliens  and  enemies,  is 
the  only  hope  or  inlet  of  the  church.  We  can  not  under¬ 
stand  how  the  spiritual  nation  should  grow  and  populate, 
and  become  powerful  within  itself. 

Piety  becomes  inconstant,  and  revivals  of  religion  take 
an  exaggerated  character  from  the  same  causes.  If  all 
Christian  success  is  measured  by  the  count  of  technical  con¬ 
versions  from  without,  then  it  follows  that  nothing  is  done 
when  conversions  cease  to  be  counted.  The  harvest  closes 
not  with  feasting,  but  with  famine.  Despair  cuts  off  Chris¬ 
tian  motive.  The  tide  is  spent;  let  us  anchor  during  the 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  STOCK 


187 


ebb.  It  is  well  indeed  to  live  very  piously  in  the  families; 
still,  there  is  nothing  depending  on  it.  The  children  will  be 
good  subjects  enough  for  conversion  without.  The  piety 
of  the  church  is  thus  made  to  be  desultory  and  irregular  by 
system.  The  idea  of  conquest  displaces  the  idea  of  growth. 
Whereas,  if  it  were  understood  that  Christian  education  or 
training  in  the  families,  is  to  be  itself  a  process  of  domes¬ 
tic  conversion;  that  as  a  child  weeps  under  a  frown  and 
smiles  at  the  command  of  a  smile,  so  spiritual  influences 
may  be  streaming  into  his  being  from  the  handling  of  the 
nursery  and  the  whole  manner  and  temperament  of  the 
house,  producing  what  will  ever  after  be  fundamental  im¬ 
pressions  of  his  being;  then  the  hearth,  the  table,  the  soci¬ 
ety  and  affections  of  the  house,  would  all  feel  the  presence 
of  a  practical  religious  motive.  The  homes  would  be  Chris¬ 
tian,  the  families  abodes  of  piety. 

Here  too  is  the  greatest  impediment  to  a  true  missionary 
spirit.  The  habit  of  conquest  runs  to  dissipation  and 
irregularity.  It  is  as  if  a  nation,  forgetting  its  own  internal 
resources,  were  scouring  the  seas,  and  trooping  up  and  down 
the  world,  in  pursuit  of  prize-money  and  plunder,  forsaking 
the  loom  and  the  plow,  and  all  the  regular  growths  of  indus¬ 
try.  Whereas,  if  the  church  were  unfolding  the  riches  of 
the  covenant  at  her  firesides  and  tables;  if  the  children  were 
identified  with  religion  from  the  first,  and  grew  up  in  a 
Christian  love  of  man,  the  missionary  spirit  would  not  throw 
itself  up  in  irregular  jets,  but  would  flow  as  a  river. 

We  suffer  also  greatly  and  even  produce  a  somewhat 
painful  evidence  of  mistake,  in  our  endeavor  to  be  always 
operating  by  an  immediate  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
when  we  make  his  mediate  influence  a  matter  of  little  ac¬ 
count.  For  there  is,  I  apprehend,  a  certain  fixed  relation 


188 


THE  OUT-POPULATING  POWER 


between  those  exertions  of  spiritual  influence  which  are  im¬ 
mediate,  and  those  which  flow  mediately  from  the  church; 
else  why  has  not  the  Spirit  left  the  church  behind,  and 
poured  itself,  as  a  rushing,  mighty  wind,  into  the  bosom  of 
the  whole  world  in  a  day?  There  needed  to  be  an  objective 
influence,  as  well  as  one  internal;  else  the  subject  of  the 
Spirit  would  not  know  or  guess  to  what  his  internal  motions 
are  attributable,  and  might  deem  them  only  nervous  or  hys¬ 
teric  effects;  or  possibly,  if  a  heathen,  the  work  of  some 
enchanter  or  demon.  When  the  church,  therefore,  grows 
and  manifests  the  work  of  God  by  the  beauty  of  her  life,  and 
the  heavenly  energy  of  her  spirit,  when  the  sanctification 
she  speaks  of  visibly  strikes  through — through  the  body, 
through  the  manners  and  works,  into  the  family  state,  into 
the  community — that  is  the  mediate  influence  necessary  to 
another  which  is  immediate.  Looking  on  her  demonstra¬ 
tions,  the  observer  is  not  only  impressed  and  drawn  by  the 
assimilating  power  of  her  character,  but  he  distinguishes  in 
her  the  type  and  form  of  that  into  which  he  is  himself  to  be 
wrought,  and  so  he  is  ready  for  the  intelligent  reception  of 
the  Spirit  in  himself.  If  now  there  is  this  fixed  relation  be¬ 
tween  God’s  mediate  and  immediate  agency  in  souls,  how 
great  is  the  mistake,  when  we  virtually  assume,  in  our  efforts 
and  expectations,  that  he  will  come  upon  souls,  only  as  the 
lightning  is  bolted  from  the  sky.  How  desultory  and  irrup- 
tive  is  the  grace  he  ministers,  how  little  respective  of  the 
work  he  has  already  begun  in  others,  whom  he  might  em¬ 
ploy  to  be  the  medium  of  his  power !  On  the  other  hand,  if 
we  are  right  in  this  view — if  there  is  a  fixed  relation  between 
the  mediate  and  immediate  influences  of  the  Spirit — such 
that  one  measures  the  other  (and  we  could  urge  many  ad¬ 
ditional  reasons  for  the  opinion),  then  are  we  brought  fairly 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  STOCK 


189 


out  upon  the  sublime  conclusion,  that  the  growth  or  progress 
of  Christian  piety  in  the  church,  if  it  shall  take  place,  offers 
the  expectation  of  a  correspondent  progress  in  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  those  spiritual  influences  that  are  immediate.  The 
mediate  and  immediate  are  both  identical  at  the  root.  If 
therefore  the  church  unfolds  her  piety  as  a  divine  life,  which 
is  one,  the  divine  life  will  display  its  activity  as  much  more 
potently  and  victoriously  without,  which  is  the  other.  And 
as  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  which  was  at  first  as  a  grain  of 
mustard  seed,  advances  in  the  last  days  toward  the  stature 
of  a  tree,  the  more  it  may  advance;  for  the  Holy  Spirit  will 
pour  himself  into  the  world,  as  much  more  freely  and  pow¬ 
erfully.  Grant,  O  God!  that  we  may  not  disappoint  our¬ 
selves  of  a  hope  so  glorious,  by  attempts  to  extend  thy 
church  without  that  holy  growth  of  piety,  on  which  our  suc¬ 
cess  depends!  Pour  thyself,  in  thy  fullness  and  as  a  gale 
of  purity,  into  our  bosom !  Expel  all  schemes  that  are  not 
begun  in  Thee !  Let  there  be  good  desires  in  us,  that  our 
works  may  be  good!  And  that  Thou  mayest  do  thy  will 
in  the  earth,  do  it  in  us  perfectly ! 


, 


■ 

. 


• 

. 


PART  II— THE  MODE 


I 


WHEN  AND  WHERE  THE  NURTURE  BEGINS 

“When  I  call  to  remembrance  the  unfeigned  faith  that  is  in  thee, 
which  dwelt  first  in  thy  grandmother  Lois,  and  thy  mother  Eunice,  and 
I  am  persuaded  that  in  thee  also.” — II  Timothy  i.  5. 

This  faith  of  Timothy,  which  is  but  another  name  for 
(the  grace  of  life  in  his  character,  the  apostle  speaks  of  here, 
it  will  be  seen,  as  a  kind  of  personal  hereditament,  or  heir¬ 
loom  in  the  family.  He  does  not  mean  to  say,  as  I  under¬ 
stand  him,  that  it  is  literally  such,  or  in  what  sense,  and 
how  far,  it  is  such.  He  only  recognizes  a  godly  parentage, 
doing  godly  things  in  him  and  for  him,  for  one,  two,  three, 
or  he  knows  not  how  many,  generations  back.  He  regards 
his  young  friend  as  born  of  godliness,  nurtured  and  trained 
by  godliness,  and  indulges  a  certain  pleasant  conviction  that 
his  present,  full  developed  faith  in  Jesus,  was  a  seed  some¬ 
how  planted  in  him  by  the  believing  motherhoods  of  the 
past,  and  began  to  live  and  grow  in  him,  thus,  long  before 
he  knew  it  himself,  or  others  observed  it  in  him.  So  by  a 
short  method,  which  includes  and  covers  all,  the  apostle 
calls  it  his  heir-loom;  complimenting  his  godly  motherhood 
in  the  figure,  and  testifying  the  greater  confidence  in  his 
piety,  that  it  was  so  near  to  being  the  inborn  nobility  of 
his  Christian  stock. 

I  use  the  text,  accordingly,  not  to  draw  some  definite 
conclusion  or  truth,  from  the  evidently  well  understood  in¬ 
definiteness  of  the  terms  of  it,  but  simply  to  head  a  discus- 

193 


194 


WHEN  AND  WHERE 


sion  of  the  question,  when  and  where,  at  what  point,  and  how 
early,  does  the  office  of  a  genuine  nurture  begin? 

Having  settled  our  conceptions  of  the  scheme,  or  doc¬ 
trinal  import,  of  Christian  nurture,  finding  what  place  it 
has,  and  is  to  have,  in  the  Christian  plan,  we  are  come  now 
to  a  matter  farther  in  advance,  and,  in  one  view,  more 
practical,  viz.:  to  a  consideration  of  the  modes  and  means, 
by  which  the  true  idea  of  a  godly  nurture  may  be  realized 
in  the  training  of  families.  And  here  it  becomes  our  first 
endeavor  to  rectify,  or  expel  a  whole  set  of  false  impressions, 
that  have  grown  up  round  the  gate  of  responsibility  itself, 
turning  off  and  pushing  aside  all  due  concern,  till  the  time 
of  greatest  facility  and  advantage  is  quite  gone  by.  The 
very  common  impression  is  that  nothing  is  to  be  done  for 
the  religious  character  of  children,  till  they  are  old  enough 
to  form  religious  judgments,  put  forth  religious  choices,  take 
the  meaning  of  the  Christian  truths,  and  perceive  what  is 
in  them  as  related  to  the  wants  of  sin,  consciously  felt  and 
reflected  on.  There  could  not  be  a  more  sad  or,  in  fact, 
more  desolating  mistake,  in  any  matter,  either  of  duty  or 
of  privilege.  And  it  is  the  more  wonderful,  the  closer  in 
appearance  to  real  fatuity,  that  it  holds  its  ground  so  firmly, 
where  all  the  tenderest  pressures  of  affection  might  be  ex¬ 
pected  to  force  it  aside,  and  clear  the  field  of  its  really  cruel 
usurpations. 

In  discussing  the  question  proposed,  I  should  not  prop¬ 
erly  cover  the  whole  ground  of  it,  and  could  not  really  be 
said  to  answer  it,  if  I  did  not — 

1.  Bring  into  view  the  very  important,  but  rather  deli¬ 
cate  fact,  suggested  or  distinctly  alluded  to  in  the  apostle’s 
words,  that  there  is  even  a  kind  of  ante-natal  nurture  which 
must  be  taken  note  of,  as  having  much  to  do  with  the  re- 


THE  NURTURE  BEGINS 


195 


ligious  preparations  or  inductive  mercies  of  childhood.  We 
are  physiologically  connected  and  set  forth  in  our  begin¬ 
nings,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  immense  consequence  to  our 
character,  what  the  connection  is.  In  our  birth,  we  not 
only  begin  to  breathe  and  circulate  blood,  but  it  is  a  ques¬ 
tion  hugely  significant  whose  the  blood  may  be.  For  in 
this  we  have  whole  rivers  of  predispositions,  good  or  bad, 
set  running  in  us — as  much  more  powerful  to  shape  our  fu¬ 
ture  than  all  tuitional  and  regulative  influences  that  come 
after,  as  they  are  earlier  in  their  beginning,  deeper  in  their 
insertion,  and  more  constant  in  their  operation.  It  is  a 
great  mistake  to  suppose  that  men  and  women,  such  as  are 
to  be  fathers  and  mothers,  are  affected  only  in  their  souls  by 
religious  experience,  and  not  in  their  bodies.  On  mere 
physiological  principles  it  can  not  be  true,  for  the  mind  must 
temper  the  body  to  its  own  states  and  changes.  Living, 
therefore,  in  the  peace  and  purity,  holding  the  equilibrium, 
flowing  in  the  liberty,  reigning  in  the  confidence,  of  a  genuine 
sanctification, \the  subjects  of  such  grace  are  penetrated 
bodily,  all  through,  by  the  work  of  the  Spirit  in  their  life.  - 
Their  appetites  are  more  nearly  in  heaven’s  order,  their  pas¬ 
sions  more  tempered  by  reason,  their  irritabilities  more 
sweetened  and  calmed,  and  so  far  they  are  entered  bodily 
into  the  condition  of  health.  Where  the  constitution  was 
poisoned  originally  by  descent,  or  has  since  been  broken 
down  by  excess  and  abuse,  it  may  not  be  wholly  restored 
in  this  life.  I  do  not  suppose  that  it  will;  but,  since  the 
soul  is  acting  itself  always  into  and  through  the  body,  when 
it  becomes  a  temple  of  the  Spirit  the  body  must  also,  just 
as  the  Scriptures  explicitly  teach,  be  undergoing,  with  the 
soul,  a  remedial  process  in  its  tempers  and  humors,  and 
prospering  in  heaven’s  order,  even  as  the  soul  prospereth. 


196 


WHEN  AND  WHERE 


This  being  true,  it  is  impossible,  on  mere  physiological  prin¬ 
ciples,  that  the  children  of  a  truly  sanctified  parentage 
should  not  be  advantaged  by  the  grace  out  of  which  they 
are  born.  And,  if  the  godly  character  has  been  kept  up  in 
a  long  line  of  ancestry,  corrupted  by  no  vicious  or  untoward 
intermarriages,  the  advantage  must  be  still  greater  and 
more  positive.  Even  temporary  changes  in  the  Christian 
state  of  character  and  attainment,  will  have  their  effect; 
how  much  more  the  godly  keeping  of  a  thoroughly  and  evenly 
sanctified  life;  how  much  more  such  a  keeping  of  inbred 
grace  and  faith,  in  a  long  line  of  godly  ancestors. 

I  might  even  state  the  case  more  strongly,  bringing  into 
the  comparison  a  godly  and  a  vicious  parentage.  Take 
a  parentage  that  has  in  it  all  the  dyspeptic  woes  of  gluttony 
and  self-indulgence,  one  that  is  stung  and  maddened  by 
the  fiery  pains  of  intemperance,  one  that  is  poisoned  and 
imbruted  by  the  excesses  of  lust,  one  that  is  broken  by  do¬ 
mestic  wrongs  or  exasperated  by  domestic  quarrels,  one 
that  is  fevered  by  ambitions,  one  that  is  soured  by  the  mor¬ 
bid  humors  of  envy  and  defeat — lengthen  out  the  catalogue, 
take  in  all  the  sins,  which,  in  some  true  sense,  are  also  vices 
and  have  their  effect  on  the  body,  how  is  it  possible,  on  any 
principle  of  rational  physiology,  that  the  children  who  are 
sprung  of  this  distempered  heritage,  should  be  as  pure  in 
their  affinities,  as  close  to  the  order  of  truth,  as  ready  for  the 
occupancy  of  all  good  thoughts,  as  well  governed  before  all 
government,  as  ductile  in  a  word  to  God,  as  they  that  are 
born  of  a  glorious  lineage  in  faith  and  prayer  and  God’s 
indwelling  peace.  Nothing  could  be  more  improbable  ante¬ 
cedently,  or  farther  off  from  the  actual  fact  afterward.  On 
the  contrary,  it  is  a  most  dismal  and  hard  lot,  as  every  one 
knows,  to  be  in  the  succession  of  a  bad,  or  vicious  parentage. 


THE  NURTURE  BEGINS  197 

No  heritage  of  wealth  could  repay,  or  more  than  a  little 
soften,  the  bitterness  of  it. 

It  is  somewhat  difficult  to  investigate  the  facts  of  this 
subject,  because  of  the  complexities  induced  by  unpro- 
pitious  and  exceptional  marriages.  But  when  such  mar¬ 
riages  are  reduced  by  the  more  general,  and  finally  universal, 
spread  of  Christian  piety,  and  when  the  pitch  of  Christian 
sanctification  is  raised,  as  it  will  be,  by  the  fuller  inspiration 
from  God,  breaking  into  his  saints  all  over  the  world,  it  will 
be  found  that  children  are  born  as  much  closer  to  God,  and 
with  predispositions  that  waft  them  as  much  more  cer¬ 
tainly  into  the  ways  of  duty  and  piety.  It  will  be  as  if  the 
faith-power  of  the  past  were  descending  into  the  present, 
flowing  on  down  the  future,  and  the  general  account  of  the 
world  will  be,  that,  as  it  has  been  corrupted,  so  also  it  is  in 
some  equally  true  sense,  regenerated  from  the  womb.  Pre¬ 
cisely  that  which  is  named  in  Scripture,  as  the  fact  extraor¬ 
dinary,  will  become  at  last  the  ordinary  and  even  the 
universal  fact. 

Here,  then,  is  the  real  and  true  beginning  of  a  godly 
nurture.  The  child  is  not  to  have  the  sad  entail  of  any 
sensuality,  or  excess,  or  distempered  passion  upon  him. 
The  heritage  of  love,  peace,  order,  continence  and  holy 
courage  is  to  be  his.  He  is  not  to  be  morally  weakened 
beforehand,  in  the  womb  of  folly,  by  the  frivolous,  worldly, 
ambitious  expectations  of  parents-to-be,  concentrating  all 
their  nonsense  in  him.  His  affinities  are  to  be  raised  by  the 
godly  expectations,  rather,  and  prayers  that  go  before;  by 
the  steady  and  good  aims  of  their  industry,  by  the  great 
impulse  of  their  faith,  by  the  brightness  of  their  hope,  by 
the  sweet  continence  of  their  religiously  pure  love  in  Christ. 
Born,  thus,  of  a  parentage  that  is  ordered  in  all  righteous- 


198 


WHEN  AND  WHERE 


ness,  and  maintains  the  right  use  of  every  thing,  especially 
the  right  use  of  nature  and  marriage,  the  child  will  have 
just  so  much  of  heaven’s  life  and  order  in  him  beforehand, 
as  have  become  fixed  properties  in  the  type  of  his  parentage; 
and  by  this  ante-natal  nurture,  will  be  set  off  in  a  way  of 
noblest  advantage,  as  respects  all  safety  and  success,  in 
the  grand  experiment  he  has  come  into  the  w^orld  to  make. 

Having  called  your  attention  to  this  very  important  but 
strangely  disregarded  chapter,  in  the  economy  of  Christian 
nurture,  I  leave  it  to  be  more  fully  and  circumstantially 
developed  by  your  own  thoughtful  consideration;  for  it  is 
a  matter  which  will  open  itself  readily,  and  prove  itself  by 
striking  and  continually  recurring  facts  to  such  as  have  it 
in  their  hearts  to  watch  for  the  truth  and  the  duties  it  re¬ 
quires.  We  pass  now — 

2.  To  that  which  is  the  common  field  of  inquiry,  and 
here  we  raise  again  the  question,  where  and  how  early  does 
the  work  of  nurture  begin?  here  to  set  forth  and  maintain 
still  another  answer,  which  antedates  the  common  impres¬ 
sion,  about  as  decidedly  as  the  one  just  given.  “"The  true, 
and  only  true  answer  is,  that  the  nurture  of  the  soul  and 
character  is  to  begin  just  when  the  nurture  of  the  body  be¬ 
gins.  It  is  first  to  be  infantile  nurture — as  such,  Christian; 
then  to  be  a  child’s  nurture;  then  to  be  a  youth’s  nurture — 
advancing  by  imperceptible  gradations,  if  possible,  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  gradations  and  stages  of  the  growth,  or  progress 
toward  maturity.-*'" 

There  is,  of  course,  no  absolute  classification  to  be  made 
here,  because  there  are  no  absolute  lines  of  distinction.  A 
kind  of  proximate  and  partly  ideal  distinction  may  be  made, 
and  I  make  it  simply  to  serve  the  convenience  of  my  sub¬ 
ject — otherwise  impossible  to  be  handled,  so  as  to  secure 


THE  NURTURE  BEGINS 


199 


any  right  practical  conviction  respecting  it.  It  is  the  dis¬ 
tinction  between  the  age  of  impressions  and  the  age  of 
tuitional  influences;  or  between  the  age  of  existence  in  the 
will  of  the  parent,  and  the  age  of  will  and  personal  choice  in  the 
child.  If  the  distinction  were  laid,  between  the  age  pre¬ 
vious  to  language  and  the  age  of  language,  it  would  amount 
to  nearly  the  same  thing;  for  the  time  of  personal  and  re¬ 
sponsible  choice  depends  on  the  measure  of  intelligence 
attained  to,  and  the  measure  of  intelligence  is  well  repre¬ 
sented,  outwardly,  by  the  degree  of  development  in  lan¬ 
guage.  Of  course  it  will  be  understood  that  we  speak,  in 
this  distinction,  of  that  which  is  not  sharply  defined,  and 
is  passed  at  no  precise  date  or  age.  The  transition  is  grad¬ 
ual,  and  it  will  even  be  doubtful,  when  it  is  passed.  No 
one  can  say  just  where  a  given  child  passes  out  of  the  field 
of  mere  impression  into  the  field  of  responsible  action.  It 
will  be  doubtful,  in  about  the  same  degree,  when  it  can  be 
said  to  have  come  into  the  power  of  language.  We  do  not 
even  know  that  there  is  not  some  infinitesimal  develop¬ 
ment  of  will  in  the  child’s  first  cry,  and  some  instinct  of  lan¬ 
guage  struggling  in  that  cry.  Our  object  in  the  distinction 
is  not  to  assume  any  thing  in  respect  to  such  matters,  but 
simply  to  accommodate  our  own  ignorance,  by  raising  a 
distribution  that  enables  us  to  speak  of  times  and  charac¬ 
teristics  truly  enough  to  serve  the  conditions  of  general  ac¬ 
curacy,  and  to  assist  in  that  manner,  the  purposes  of  our 
discussion. 

Now  the  very  common  assumption  is  that,  in  what  we 
have  called  the  age  of  impressions,  there  is  really  nothing 
done,  or  to  be  done,  for  the  religious  character.  The  lack  of 
all  genuine  apprehensions,  in  respect  to  this  matter,  among 
people  otherwise  intelligent  and  awake,  is  really  wonder- 


200 


WHEN  AND  WHERE 


ful;  it  amounts  even  to  a  kind  of  coarseness.  Full  of  all 
fondness,  and  all  highest  expectation  respecting  their  chil¬ 
dren,  and  having  also  many  Christian  desires  for  their  wel¬ 
fare,  they  seem  never  to  have  brought  their  minds  down 
close  enough  to  the  soul  of  infancy,  to  imagine  that  any 
thing  of  consequence  is  going  on  with  it.  What  can  they  do, 
till  they  can  speak  to  it?  what  can  it  do,  till  it  speaks  ?  As 
if  there  were  no  process  going  on  to  bring  it  forward  into 
language;  or  as  if  that  process  had  itself  nothing  to  do  with 
the  bringing  on  of  intelligence,  and  no  deep,  seminal  work¬ 
ing  toward  a  character,  unfolding  and  to  be  unfolded  in  it. 
The  child,  in  other  words,  is  to  come  into  intelligence  through 
perfect  unintelligence!  to  get  the  power  of  words  out  of 
words  themselves,  and  without  any  experience  whereby 
their  meaning  is  developed!  to  be  taught  responsibility 
under  moral  and  religious  ideas,  when  the  experience  has 
unfolded  no  such  ideas!  In  this  first  stage,  therefore, 
which  I  have  called  the  stage  of  impressions,  how  very 
commonly  will  it  be  found  that  the  parents,  even  Christian 
parents,  discharge  themselves,  in  the  most  innocently  un¬ 
thinking  way  possible,  of  so  much  as  a  conception  of  re¬ 
sponsibility.  The  child  can  not  talk,  what  then  can  it 
know?  So  they  dress  it  in  all  fineries,  practice  it  in  shows 
and  swells  and  all  the  petty  airs  of  foppery  and  brave  as¬ 
sumption,  act  it  into  looks  and  manners  not  fit  to  be  acted 
anywhere,  provoking  the  repetition  of  its  bad  tricks  by  laugh¬ 
ing  at  them,  indulging  freely  every  sort  of  temper  towards 
it,  or,  it  may  be,  filling  the  house  with  a  din  of  scolding 
between  the  parents — all  this  in  simple  security,  as  if  their 
child  were  only  a  thing,  or  an  ape!  What  hurt  can  the 
simple  creature  get  from  any  thing  done  before  it,  toward 
it,  or  upon  it,  when  it  can  talk  of  nothing,  and  will  not  so 


THE  NURTURE  BEGINS 


201 


much  as  remember  any  thing  it  has  seen  or  heard?  Doubt¬ 
less  there  is  a  wise  care  to  be  had  of  it,  when  it  is  old  enough 
to  be  taught  and  commanded,  but  till  then  there  is  nothing 
to  be  done,  but  simply  to  foster  the  plaything  kindly,  en¬ 
joy  it  freely,  or  abuse  it  pettishly,  at  pleasure! 

Just  contrary  to  this,  I  suspect,  and  I  think  it  can  also 
be  shown  by  sufficient  evidence,  that  more  is  done  to  affect, 
or  fix,  the  moral  and  religious  character  of  children,  before 
the  age  of  language  than  after;  that  the  age  of  impres¬ 
sions,  when  parents  are  commonly  waiting,  in  idle  secur¬ 
ity,  or  trifling  away  their  time  in  mischievous  indiscretions, 
or  giving  up  their  children  to  the  chance  of  such  keeping 
as  nurses  and  attendants  may  exercise,  is  in  fact  their  golden 
opportunity;  when  more  is  likely  to  be  done  for  their  ad¬ 
vantage  or  damage  than  in  all  the  instruction  and  discipline 
of  their  minority  afterward. 

And  something  like  this  I  think  we  should  augur  before¬ 
hand,  from  the  peculiar,  full-born  intensity  of  the  maternal 
affection,  at  the  moment  when  it  first  embraces  the  newly 
arrived  object.  It  scarcely  appears  to  grow,  never  to  grow 
tender  and  self-sacrificing  in  its  care.  It  turns  itself  to  its 
charge,  with  a  love  that  is  boundless  and  fathomless,  at  the 
first.  As  if  just  then  and  there  some  highest  and  most 
sacred  office  of  motherhood  were  required  to  begin.  Is  it 
only  that  the  child  demands  her  physical  nurture  and  care¬ 
fulness  ?  That  is  not  the  answer  of  her  consciousness.  Her 
maternity  scorns  all  comparison  with  that  of  the  mere  ani¬ 
mals.  Her  love,  as  she  herself  feels,  looks  through  the 
body  into  the  inborn  personality  of  her  child, — the  man  or 
woman  to  be.  Nay,  more  than  that,  if  she  could  sound 
her  consciousness  deeply  enough,  she  would  find  a  certain 
religiousness  in  it,  measurable  by  no  scale  of  mere  earthly 


202 


WHEN  AND  WHERE 


and  temporal  love.  Here  springs  the  secret  of  her  ma¬ 
ternity,  and  its  semi-divine  proportions.  "It  is  the  call  and 
equipment  of  God,  for  a  work  on  the  impressional  and  plastic 
age  of  a  soul,  '“'Christianized  as  it  should  be,  and  wrought 
in  by  the  grace  of  the  Spirit,  the  minuteness  of  its  care,  its 
gentleness,  its  patience,  its  almost  divine  faithfulness,  are 
prepared  for  the  shaping  of  a  souPs  immortality.  And,  to 
make  the  work  a  sure  one,  the  intrusted  soul  is  allowed  to 
have  no  will  as  yet  of  its  own,  that  this  motherhood  may 
more  certainly  plant  the  angel  in  the  man,  uniting  him  to 
all  heavenly  goodness  by  predispositions  from  itself,  before 
he  is  united,  as  he  will  be,  by  choices  of  his  own.  Nothing 
but  this  explains  and  measures  the  wonderful  proportions 
of  maternity. 

It  will  be  seen  at  once,  and  will  readily  be  taken  as  a  con¬ 
firmation  of  the  transcendent  importance  of  what  is  done, 
or  possible  to  be  done,  for  children,  in  their  impressional 
and  plastic  age,  that  whatever  is  impressed  or  inserted  here, 
at  this  early  point,  must  be  profoundly  seminal,  as  regards 
all  the  future  developments  of  the  character.  And  though 
it  can  not,  by  the  supposition,  amount  to  character,  in  the 
responsible  sense  of  that  term,  it  may  be  the  seed,  in  some 
very  important  sense,  of  all  the  future  character  to  be  un¬ 
folded;  just  as  we  familiarly  think  of  sin  itself,  as  a  char¬ 
acter  in  blame  when  the  will  is  ripe,  though  prepared,  in 
still  another  view,  by  the  seminal  damages  and  misaffec- 
tions  derived  from  sinning  ancestors.  So  when  a  child, 
during  the  whole  period  of  impressions,  or  passive  recipien¬ 
cies,  previous  to  the  development  of  his  responsible  will, 
lives  in  the  life  and  feeling  of  his  parents,  and  they  in  the 
molds  of  the  Spirit,  they  will,  of  course,  be  shaping  them¬ 
selves  in  him,  or  him  in  themselves,  and  the  effects  wrought 


THE  NURTURE  BEGINS 


203 


in  him  will  be  preparations  of  what  he  will  by-and-by  do 
from  himself;  seeds,  in  that  manner  possibly,  even  of  a 
regenerate  life  and  character. 

That  we  may  conceive  this  matter  more  adequately  and 
exactly,  consider,  a  moment,  that  whole  contour  of  dispo¬ 
sitions,  affections,  tempers,  affinities,  aspirations,  which 
come  into  power  in  a  soul  after  the  will  is  set  fast  in  a  life  of 
duty  and  devotion.  These  things,  we  conceive,  follow  in 
a  sense  the  will,  and  then  become  in  turn  a  new  element 
about  the  will — a  new  heart,  as  we  say,  prompting  to  new 
acts  and  a  continued  life  of  new  obedience.  Now  what  I 
would  affirm  is,  that  just  this  same  contour  of  dispositions 
and  affinities  may  be  prepared  under,  and  come  after,  the 
will  of  the  parents,  when  the  child  is  living  in  their  will,  and 
be  ready  as  a  new  element,  or  new  heart,  to  prompt  the 
child’s  will,  or  put  it  forward  in  the  choice  of  all  duty,  when¬ 
ever  it  is  so  matured  as  to  choose  for  itself.  Of  course  these 
regenerated  dispositions  and  affinities,  this  general  dis¬ 
posedness  to  good,  which  we  call  a  new  heart,  supposes  a 
work  of  the  Spirit;  and,  if  the  parents  live  in  the  Spirit  as 
they  ought,  they  will  have  the  Spirit  for  the  child  as  truly 
as  for  themselves,  and  the  child  will  be  grown,  so  to  speak, 
in  the  molds  of  the  Spirit,  even  from  his  infancy. 

This  will  be  yet  more  probable,  if  we  glance  at  some  of 
the  particular  facts  and  conditions  involved.  Thus  if  we 
speak  of  impressions,  or  the  age  of  impressions,  and  of  that 
as  an  age  prior  to  language,  what  kind  of  religious  impres¬ 
sions  can  be  raised  in  a  soul,  it  may  be  asked,  when  the  child 
is  not  far  enough  developed  in  language  to  be  taught  any 
thing  about  God,  or  Christ,  or  itself,  that  belongs  to  in¬ 
telligence?  And  the  sufficient  answer  must  be,  that  lan¬ 
guage  itself  has  no  meaning  till  rudimental  impressions  are 


204 


WHEN  AND  WHERE 


first  begotten  in  the  life  of  experience,  to  give  it  a  meaning. 
Words  are  useful  to  propagate  meanings,  or  to  farther 
develop  and  combine  meanings,  but  a  child  would  never 
know  the  meaning  of  any  word  in  a  language,  just  by  hear¬ 
ing  the  sound  of  it  in  his  ears.  |  He  must  learn  to  put  the 
meaning  into  it,  by  having  found  that  meaning  in  his  im¬ 
pressions,  and  then  the  word  becomes  significant.  !  And  it 
requires  a  certain  wakefulness  and  capacity  of  intelligent 
apprehension,  to  receive  or  take  up  such  impressions.  Thus 
a  dog  would  never  get  hold  of  any  religious  impression  at 
the  family  prayers,  all  his  lifetime:  but  a  child  will  be  fast 
gathering  up,  out  of  his  little  life  and  experience,  impres- 
sional  states  and  associations,  that  give  meanings  to  the 
words  of  prayer,  as  they,  in  turn,  give  meanings  to  the  facts 
of  his  experience.  All  language  supposes  impressions  first 
made.  The  word  light  does  not  signify  any  thing,  till  the 
eye  has  taken  the  impression  of  light.  The  word  love  is 
unmeaning,  to  one  who  has  not  loved  and  received  love. 
The  word  God ,  raises  no  conception  of  God,  till  the  idea  of 
such  a  being  has  been  somehow  generated  and  associated 
with  that  particular  sound.  How  far  off  is  it  then  from  aH 
sound  apprehensions  of  fact,  to  imagine  that  nothing  re¬ 
ligious  can  be  done  for  a  child  till  after  he  is  far  enough  de¬ 
veloped  in  language  to  be  taught;  when  in  fact  he  could 
not  be  thus  developed  in  language  at  all,  if  the  meanings  of 
language  were  not  somehow  started  in  him  by  the  impres¬ 
sions  derived  from  his  experience. 

Observe,  again,  how  very  quick  the  child’s  eye  is,  in  the 
passive  age  of  infancy,  to  catch  impressions,  and  receive 
the  meaning  of  looks,  voices,  and  motions.  It  peruses  all 
faces,  and  colors,  and  sounds.  Every  sentiment  that  looks 
into  its  eyes,  looks  back  out  of  its  eyes,  and  plays  in  minia- 


THE  NURTURE  BEGINS 


205 


ture  on  its  countenance.  The  tear  that  steals  down  the 
cheek  of  a  mother’s  suppressed  grief,  gathers  the  little  in¬ 
fantile  face  into  a  responsive  sob.  With  a  kind  of  wonder¬ 
ing  silence,  which  is  next  thing  to  adoration,  it  studies  the 
mother  in  her  prayer,  and  looks  up  piously  with  her,  in 
that  exploring  watch,  that  signifies  unspoken  prayer.  If 
the  child  is  handled  fretfully,  scolded,  jerked,  or  simply  laid 
aside  unaffectionately,  in  no  warmth  of  motherly  gentle¬ 
ness,  it  feels  the  sting  of  just  that  which  is  felt  towards  it; 
and  so  it  is  angered  by  anger,  irritated  by  irritation,  fretted 
by  fretfulness;  having  thus  impressed,  just  that  kind  of 
impatience  or  ill-nature,  which  is  felt  towards  it,  and  grow¬ 
ing  faithfully  into,  the  bad  mold  offered,  as  by  a  fixed  law. 
There  is  great  importance,  in  this  manner,  even  in  the  han¬ 
dling  of  infancy.  If  it  is  unchristian,  it  will  beget  unchris¬ 
tian  states,  or  impressions.  If  it  is  gentle,  even,  patient 
and  loving,  it  prepares  a  mood  and  temper  like  its  own. 
There  is  scarcely  room  to  doubt,  that  all  most  crabbed,  hate¬ 
ful,  resentful,  passionate,  ill-natured  characters;  all  most 
even,  lovely,  firm  and  true,  are  prepared,  in  a  great  degree, 
by  the  handling  of  the  nursery.  To  these  and  all  such 
modes  of  feeling  and  treatment  as  make  up  the  element 
of  the  infant’s  life,  it  is  passive  as  wax  to  the  seal.  So  that 
if  we  consider  how  small  a  speck,  falling  into  the  nucleus 
of  a  crystal,  may  disturb  its  form;  or,  how  even  a  mote 
of  foreign  matter  present  in  the  quickening  egg,  will  suffice 
to  produce  a  deformity;  considering,  also,  on  the  other  hand, 
what  nice  conditions  of  repose,  in  one  case,  and  what  ac¬ 
curately  modulated  supplies  of  heat  in  the  other,  are  neces¬ 
sary  to  a  perfect  product;  then  only  do  we  begin  to  im¬ 
agine  what  work  is  going  on,  in  the  soul  of  a  child,  in  this 
first  chapter  of  life,  the  age  of  impressions. 


206 


WHEN  AND  WHERE 


It  must  also  greatly  affect  our  judgments  on  this  point, 
to  observe  that,  when  this  first  age  of  impressions  is  gone  by, 
there  is,  after  that,  no  such  thing  any  more  as  a  possibility 
of  absolute  control.  Thus  far  the  child  has  been  more^a 
candidate  for  personality  than  a  person.  He  has  been  as 
a  seed  forming  in  the  capsule  of  the  parent-stem,  getting 
every  thing  from  that  stem,  and  fashioned,  in  its  kind,  by 
the  fashioning  kind  of  that.  But  now,  having  been  gradu¬ 
ally  and  imperceptibly  ripened,  as  the  seed  separates  and 
falls  off,  to  be  another  and  complete  form  of  life  in  itself,  so 
the  child  comes  out,  in  his  own  power,  a  complete  person, 
able  to  choose  responsibly  for  himself.  Now  he  is  no  more 
in  the  power  of  the  parent,  as  before;  the  dominion  of  the 
older  life  is  supplanted,  by  the  self-asserting  competency  of 
the  younger;  what  can  the  old  stalk  do  upon  the  seed  that 
is  already  ripe?  The  transition  here  is  very  gradual,  it  is 
true,  covering  even  a  space  of  years;  and  something  may 
be  done  for  the  child’s  character  by  instruction,  by  the 
skillful  management  of  motives,  and  the  tender  solicitudes 
of  parental  watching  and  prayer;  but  less  and  less,  of  course, 
the  older  the  child  becomes,  and  the  more  completely  his 
personal  responsibility  is  developed.  But  how  very  fearful 
the  change,  and  how  much  it  means,  that  the  child,  once 
plastic  and  passive  to  the  will  of  the  parent,  has  gotten  by 
the  point  of  absolute  disposability,  and  is  never  again  to 
be  properly  in  that  will !  The  perilous  power  of  self-care 
and  self-assertion  has  come,  and  what  is  to  be  the  result? 
And  how  much  does  it  signify  to  the  parent,  when  he  feels 
his  power  to  be  thus  growing  difficult,  weak,  doubtful,  or 
finally  quite  ended !  What  a  conception  it  is,  that  he  once 
had  his  child  in  absolute  direction,  and  the  fashioning  of  his 
own  superior  will,  to  dress,  to  feed,  to  handle,  to  play  him- 


THE  NURTURE  BEGINS 


207 


self  into  his  sentiments,  be  the  disposition  of  his  disposi¬ 
tions,  the  temper  of  his  tempers.  Was  there  not  some¬ 
thing  great  to  be  done  then,  when  the  advantage  was  so 
great — now  to  be  done  no  more?  It  will  be  difficult  to 
shake  off  that  impression;  impossible  to  a  really  thoughtful 
Christian  soul.  And  if  the  will,  now  matured  and  gone  over 
into  complete  self-assertion,  rushes  into  all  wildness  and 
profligacy,  unrestrained  and  unrestrainable,  the  recollec¬ 
tion  of  a  time  when  it  was  restrainable  and  could  have  been 
molded,  even  as  wax  itself,  will  return  with  inevitable  cer¬ 
tainty  upon  the  parents,  and  taunt,  O  how  bitterly,  the 
neglectfulness  and  lightness,  by  which  they  cast  their  op¬ 
portunity  away! 

I  bring  into  view  accordingly,  just  here,  a  consideration 
that  goes  further  to  establish  the  position  I  am  asserting, 
than  any  other,  and  one  that  is  naturally  suggested  by  the 
topic  just  adverted  to.  We  call  this  first  chapter  of  life  the 
age  of  impressions;  we  speak  of  the  child  as  being  in  a  sense 
passive  and  plastic,  living  in  the  will  of  the  parents,  having 
no  will  developed  for  responsible  action.  It  might  be 
imagined  from  the  use  of  such  terms,  that  the  infant  or  very 
young  child  has  no  will  at  all.  But  that  is  not  any  true  con¬ 
ception.  It  has  no  responsible  will,  because  it  is  not  ac¬ 
quainted,  as  yet,  with  those  laws  and  limits  and  conditions 
of  choice  that  make  it  responsible.  Nevertheless  it  has  will, 
blind  will,  as  strongly  developed  as  any  other  faculty  and 
sometimes  even  most  strongly  of  all.  The  manifestations 
of  it  are  sometimes  even  frightful.  And  precisely  this  it  is 
which  makes  the  age  of  impressions,  the  age  prior  to  lan¬ 
guage  and  responsible  choice,  most  profoundly  critical  in 
its  importance.  It  is  the  age  in  which  the  will-power  of 
the  soul  is  to  be  tamed  or  subordinated  to  a  higher  control; 


208 


WHEN  AND  WHERE 


that  of  obedience  to  parents,  that  of  duty  and  religion. 
And,  in  this  view,  it  is  that  every  thing  most  important  to 
the  religious  character  turns  just  here.  Is  this  infant  child 
to  fill  the  universe  with  his  complete  and  total  self-asser¬ 
tion,  owning  no  superior,  or  is  he  to  learn  the  self-submis¬ 
sion  of  allegiance,  obedience,  duty  to  God?  Is  he  to  be¬ 
come  a  demon  let  loose  in  God’s  eternity,  or  an  angel  and 
free  prince  of  the  realm  ? 

That  he  may  be  this,  he  is  now  given,  will  and  all,  as  wax, 
to  the  wise  molding-power  of  control.  Beginning,  then,  to 
lift  his  will  in  mutiny,  and  swell  in  self-asserting  obstinacy, 
refusing  to  go  or  come,  or  stand,  or  withhold  in  this  or  that, 
let  there  be  no  fight  begun,  or  issue  made  with  him,  as  if  it 
were  the  true  thing  now  to  break  his  will,  or  drive  him  out 
of  it  by  mere  terrors  and  pains.  This  willfulness,  or  ob¬ 
stinacy,  is  not  so  purely  bad,  or  evil,  as  it  seems.  It  is 
partly  his  feeling  of  himself  and  you,  in  which  he  is  getting 
hold  of  the  conditions  of  authority,  and  feeling  out  his  limi¬ 
tations.  No,  this  breaking  of  a  child’s  will  to  which  many 
well-meaning  parents  set  themselves,  with  such  instant, 
almost  passionate  resolution,  is  the  way  they  take  to  make 
him  a  coward,  or  a  thief,  or  a  hypocrite,  or  a  mean  spirited 
and  driveling  sycophant — nothing  in  fact  is  more  dreadful 
to  thought  than  this  breaking  of  a  will,  when  it  breaks,  as 
it  often  does,  the  personality  itself,  and  all  highest,  noblest 
firmness  of  manhood.  The  true  problem  is  different;  it  is 
not  to  break,  but  to  bend  rather,  to  draw  the  will  down,  or 
away  from  self-assertion  toward  self-devotion,  to  teach  it 
the  way  of  submitting  to  wise  limitations,  and  raise  it  into 
the  great  and  glorious  liberties  of  a  state  of  loyalty  to  God. 
See  then  how  it  is  to  be  done.  The  child  has  no  force,  how¬ 
ever  stout  he  is  in  his  will.  Take  him  up  then,  when  the 


THE  NURTURE  BEGINS 


209 


fit  is  upon  him,  carry  him,  stand  him  on  his  feet,  set  him 
here  or  there,  do  just  that  in  him  which  he  refuses  to  do  in 
himself — all  this  gently  and  kindly,  as  if  he  were  capable 
of  maintaining  no  issue  at  all.  Do  it  again  and  again,  as 
often  as  may  be  necessary.  By  and  by,  he  will  begin  to 
perceive  that  his  obstinacy  is  but  the  bluster  of  his  weak¬ 
ness;  till  finally,  as  the  sense  of  limitation  comes  up  into  a 
sense  of  law  and  duty,  he  will  be  found  to  have  learned,  even 
beforehand,  the  folly  of  mere  self-assertion.  And  when  he 
has  reached  this  point  of  felt  obligation  to  obedience,  it  will 
no  longer  break  him  down  to  enforce  his  compliance,  but  it 
will  even  exalt  into  greater  dignity  and  capacity,  that  sub¬ 
lime  power  of  self-government,  by  which  his  manhood  is 
to  be  most  distinguished. 

By  a  different  treatment  at  the  point  or  crisis  just  named, 
that  is  by  raising  an  issue  to  be  driven  straight  through  by 
terror  and  storm,  one  of  two  results  almost  equally  bad 
were  likely  to  follow;  the  child  would  either  have  been  quite 
broken  down  by  fear,  the  lowest  of  all  possible  motives  when 
separated  from  moral  convictions,  or  else  would  have  been 
made  a  hundred  fold  more  obstinate  by  his  triumph.  Na¬ 
ture  provided  for  his  easy  subjugation,  by  putting  him  in 
the  hands  of  a  superior  strength,  which  could  manage  him 
without  any  fight  of  enforcement — to  have  him  schooled 
and  tempered  to  a  customary  self-surrender  which  takes 
nothing  from  his  natural  force  and  manliness.  And  so 
is  accomplished  what,  in  one  view,  is  the  great  problem  of 
life;  that  on  which  all  duty  and  allegiance  to  God,  in  the 
state  even  of  conversion,  depends. 

It  only  remains  to  add  that  we  are  not  to  assume  the 
comparative  unimportance  of  what  is  done  upon  a  child, 
in  his  age  of  impressions,  because  there  is  really  no  char- 


210 


WHEN  AND  WHERE 


acter  of  virtue  or  vice,  of  blame  or  praise,  developed  in  that 
age.  Be  it  so — it  is  so  by  the  supposition.  But  the  power, 
the  root,  the  seed,  is  implanted  nevertheless,  in  most  cases, 
of  what  he  will  be.  Not  in  every  case,  but  often,  the  seed 
of  a  regenerate  life  is  implanted — that  which  makes  the 
child  a  Christian  in  God’s  view,  as  certainly  as  if  he  were 
already  out  in  the  testimony  and  formal  profession  of  his 
faith.  I  was  just  now  speaking  of  the  dreadful  power  of 
will  or  willfulness,  some  times  manifested  even  in  this  first 
age,  that  we  have  called  the  age  of  impressions,  and  of  the 
ways  in  which,  by  one  kind  of  mismanagement  or  another, 
the  character  may  be  turned  to  vices  that  are  as  opposite, 
as  the  vices  of  meanness  and  the  crimes  of  violence  and 
blood.  So  it  will  be  found  that  almost  every  sort  of  mis¬ 
management,  or  neglect,  plants  some  seed  of  vice  and  misery 
that  grows  out  afterwards  into  a  character  in  its  own  kind. 
Thus  the  child  by  a  continual  worry  of  his  little  life,  under 
abusive  words,  and  harsh,  flashy  tempers,  grows  to  be  a 
bed  of  nettles  in  all  his  personal  tempers,  and  will  so  be  pre¬ 
pared  to  break  out,  in  the  age  of  choice,  into  almost  any 
vice  of  ill-nature.  A  child  can  be  pampered  in  feeding,  so 
as  to  become,  in  a  sense,  all  body;  so  that,  when  he  comes 
into  choice  and  responsible  action,  he  is  already  a  confirmed 
sensualist,  showing  it  in  the  lines  of  his  face,  even  before  it 
appears  in  his  tastes,  habits  and  vices.  Thus  we  have  a 
way  of  wondering  that  the  children  of  this  or  that  family 
should  turn  out  so  poorly,  but  the  real  fact  is,  probably,  if 
we  knew  it,  that  what  we  call  their  turning  out,  is  only  their 
growing  out,  in  just  that  which  was  first  grown  in,  by  the 
mismanagement  of  their  infancy  and  childhood.  What 
they  took  in  as  impression,  or  contagion,  is  developed  by 
choice — not  at  once,  perhaps,  but  finally,  after  the  poison 


THE  NURTURE  BEGINS 


211 


has  had  time  to  work.  And  in  just  the  same  way,  doubt¬ 
less,  it  may  be  true,  in  multitudes  of  Christian  conversions, 
that  what  appear  to  be  such  to  others,  and  also  to  the  sub¬ 
jects  themselves,  are  only  the  restored  activity  and  more 
fully  developed  results  of  some  predispositional  state,  or 
initially  sanctified  property,  in  the  tempers  and  subtle  affini¬ 
ties  of  their  childhood.  They  are  now  bom  into  that  by 
the  assent  of  their  own  will,  which  they  were  in  before,  with¬ 
out  their  will.  What  they  do  not  remember  still  remembers 
them,  and  now  claims  a  right  in  them.  What  was  before 
unconscious,  flames  out  into  consciousness,  and  they  break 
forth  into  praise  and  thanksgiving,  in  that  which,  long  ago, 
took  them  initially,  and  touched  them  softly  without  thanks. 
For  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  seed  of  character  in  religion, 
preceding  all  religious  development.  Even  as  Calvin, 
speaking  of  the  regenerative  grace  there  may  be  in  the 
heart  of  infancy  itself,  testifies — “the  work  of  God  is  not 
yet  without  existence,  because  it  is  not  observed  and  under¬ 
stood  by  us.” 

By  these  and  many  other  considerations  that  might  be 
named,  it  is  made  clear,  I  think,  to  any  judicious  and 
thoughtful  person,  that  the  most  important  age  of  Chris¬ 
tian  nurture  is  the  first;  that  which  we  have  called  the  age 
of  impressions,  just  that  age,  in  which  the  duties  and  cares 
of  a  really  Christian  nurture  are  so  commonly  postponed, 
or  assumed  to  have  not  yet  arrived.  I  have  no  scales  to 
measure  quantities  of  effect  in  this  matter  of  early  training, 
but  I  may  be  allowed  to  express  my  solemn  conviction,  that 
more,  as  a  general  fact,  is  done,  or  lost,  by  neglect  of  doing, 
on  a  child’s  immortality,  in  the  first  three  years  of  his  life, 
than  in  all  his  years  of  discipline  afterwards.  And  I  name 
this  particular  time,  or  date,  that  I  may  not  be  supposed 


212 


WHEN  AND  WHERE 


to  lay  the  chief  stress  of  duty  and  care  on  the  latter  part  of 
what  I  have  called  the  age  of  impressions;  which,  as  it  is  a 
matter  somewhat  indefinite,  may  be  taken  to  cover  the  space 
of  three  or  four  times  this  number  of  years;  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  language,  and  of  moral  ideas  being  only  partially 
accomplished,  in  most  cases,  for  so  long  a  time.  Let  every 
Christian  father  and  mother  understand,  when  their  child 
is  three  years  old,  that  they  have  done  more  than  half 
of  all  they  will  ever  do  for  his  character.  What  can  be  more 
strangely  wide  of  all  just  apprehension,  than  the  immense 
efficacy,  imputed  by  most  parents  to  the  Christian  minis¬ 
try,  compared  with  what  they  take  to  be  the  almost  insig¬ 
nificant  power  conferred  on  them  in  their  parental  charge 
and  duties.  Why,  if  all  preachers  of  Christ  could  have  their 
hearers,  for  whole  months  and  years,  in  their  own  will,  as 
parents  do  their  children,  so  as  to  move  them  by  a  look,  a 
motion,  a  smile,  a  frown,  and  act  their  own  sentiments  and 
emotions  over  in  them  at  pleasure;  if,  also,  a  little  farther 
on,  they  had  them  in  authority  to  command,  direct,  tell 
them  whither  to  go,  what  to  learn,  what  to  do,  regulate 
their  hours,  their  books,  their  pleasures,  their  company,  and 
call  them  to  prayer  over  their  own  knees  every  night  and 
morning,  who  could  think  it  impossible,  in  the  use  of  such  a 
power,  to  produce  almost  any  result?  Should  not  such  a 
ministry  be  expected  to  fashion  all  who  come  under  it  to 
newness  of  life  ?  Let  no  parent,  shifting  off  his  duties  to  his 
children,  in  this  manner,  think  to  have  his  defects  made  up, 
and  the  consequent  damages  mended  afterwards,  when  they 
have  come  to  their  maturity,  by  the  comparatively  slender, 
always  doubtful,  efficacy  of  preaching  and  pulpit  harangue. 

If  now  I  am  right  in  the  view  I  have  been  trying  to  es¬ 
tablish,  it  will  readily  occur  to  you  that  irreparable  damage 


THE  NURTURE  BEGINS 


213 


may  be  and  must  often  be  done  by  the  self-indulgence  of 
those  parents,  who  place  their  children  mostly  in  the  charge 
of  nurses  and  attendants  for  just  those  years  of  their  life, 

in  which  the  greatest  and  most  absolute  effects  are  to  be 

» 

wrought  in  their  character.  The  lightness  that  prevails, 
on  this  point,  is  really  astonishing.  Many  parents  do  not 
even  take  pains  to  know  anything  about  the  tempers,  the 
truthfulness,  the  character  generally,  of  the  nurses  to  whom 
their  children  are  thus  confidingly  trusted.  No  matter — 
the  child  is  too  young  to  be  poisoned,  or  at  all  hurt,  by  their 
influence.  And  so  they  give  over,  to  these  faithless  and 
often  cruelly  false  hirelings  of  the  nursery,  to  be  always 
with  them,  under  their  power,  associated  with  their  persons, 
handled  by  their  roughness,  and  imprinted,  day  and  night, 
by  the  coarse,  bad  sentiments  of  their  voices  and  faces, 
these  helpless,  hapless  beings  whom  they  call  their  children, 
and  think  they  are  really  making  much  of,  in  the  instituting 
of  a  nursery  for  them  and  their  keeping.  Such  a  mother 
ought  to  see  that  she  is  making  much  more  of  herself  than 
of  her  child.  This  whole  scheme  of  nurture  is  a  scheme  of 
self-indulgence.  Now  is  the  time  when  her  little  one  most 
needs  to  see  her  face,  and  hear  her  voice,  and  feel  her  gen¬ 
tle  hand.  Now  is  the  time  when  her  child’s  eternity  pleads 
most  entreatingly  for  the  benefit  of  her  motherly  charge  and 
presence.  What  mother  would  not  be  dismayed  by  the 
thought  of  having  her  family  grow  up  into  the  sentiments 
of  her  nurse,  and  come  forward  into  life  as  being  in  the  suc¬ 
cession  to  her  character!  And  yet  how  often  is  this  most 
exactly  what  she  has  provided  for. 

Again,  it  is  very  clear  that,  in  this  early  kind  of  nurture, 
faithfully  maintained,  there  is  a  call  for  the  greatest  per¬ 
sonal  holiness  in  the  parents,  and  that  just  those  conditions 


214 


WHEN  AND  WHERE 


are  added,  which  will  make  true  holiness  closest  to  nature, 
and  most  beautifully  attractive — saving  it  from  all  the  re¬ 
pulsive  appearances  of  severity  and  sanctimony.  In  this 
charge  and  nurture  of  infant  children,  nothing  is  to  be  done 
by  an  artificial,  lecturing  process;  nothing,  or  little  by  what 
can  be  called  government.  We  are  to  get  our  effects  chiefly 
by  just  being  what  we  ought,  and  making  a  right  presence 
of  love  and  life  to  our  children.  They  are  in  a  plastic  age 
that  is  receiving  its  type,  not  from  our  words,  but  from  our 
spirit,  and  whose  character  is  shaping  in  the  molds  of  ours. 
Living  under  this  conviction,  we  are  held  to  a  sound  verity 
and  reality  in  every  thing.  The  defect  of  our  character  is 
not  to  be  made  up  here  by  the  sanctity  of  our  words;  we 
must  be  all  that  we  would  have  our  children  feel  and  receive. 
Thus,  if  a  man  were  to  be  set  before  a  mirror,  with  the  feel¬ 
ing  that  the  exact  image  of  what  he  is,  for  the  day,  is  there 
to  be  produced  and  left  as  a  permanent  and  fixed  image  for¬ 
ever,  to  what  carefulness,  what  delicate  sincerity  of  spirit 
would  he  be  moved.  And  will  he  be  less  moved  to  the  same, 
when  that  mirror  is  the  soul  of  his  child? 

Inducted,  thus,  into  a  more  profoundly  real  holiness, 
we  shall,  at  the  same  time,  grow  more  natural  in  it.  The 
family  quality  of  our  piety,  living  itself  into  our  children, 
will  moisten  the  dry  individualism  we  suffer,  relieve  the  ec¬ 
centricities  we  display,  set  purity  in  the  place  of  bustle  and 
presumption,  growth  in  the  place  of  conquest,  sound  health 
in  the  place  of  spasmodic  exaltations;  for  when  a  convic¬ 
tion  is  felt  in  Christian  families,  that  living  is  to  be  a  means 
of  grace,  and  as  God  will  suffer  it,  a  regenerating  power, 
then  will  our  piety  become  a  domestic  spirit,  and  as  much 
more  tender,  as  it  is  closer  to  the  life  of  childhood.  Now, 
we  have  a  kind  of  piety  that  contains,  practically  speaking, 


THE  NURTURE  BEGINS 


215 


only  adults,  or  those  who  are  old  enough  to  reflect  and  act 
for  themselves,  and  it  is  as  if  we  lived  in  an  adult  world, 
where  every  one  is  for  himself.  If  we  could  abolish  also 
distinctions  of  age,  and  sex,  and  office,  we  should  only 
make  up  a  style  of  religion  somewhat  drier  and  farther  off 
from  nature  than  we  now  have.  We  can  never  come  into 
the  true  mode  of  living  that  God  has  appointed  for  us,  until 
we  regard  each  generation  as  hovering  over  the  next,  acting 
itself  into  the  next,  and  casting  thus  a  type  of  character  in 
the  next,  before  it  comes  to  act  for  itself.  Then  we  shall 
have  gentle  cares  and  feelings;  then  the  families  will  be¬ 
come  bonds  of  spiritual  life;  example,  education  and  gov¬ 
ernment,  being  Christian  powers,  will  be  regulated  by  a 
Christian  spirit;  the  rigidities  of  religious  principle  will 
be  softened  by  the  tender  affections  of  nature  twining  among 
them,  and  the  common  life  of  the  house  dignified  by  the 
sober  and  momentous  cares  of  the  life  to  come.  And  thus 
Christian  piety,  being  oftener  a  habit  in  the  soul  than  a 
conquest  over  it,  will  be  as  much  more  respectable  and  con¬ 
sistent  as  it  is  earlier  in  the  birth  and  closer  to  nature. 


II 


PARENTAL  QUALIFICATIONS 

“For  I  know  him,  that  he  will  command  his  children  and  his  house¬ 
hold  after  him,  and  they  shall  keep  the  way  of  the  Lord.” — Genesis 
xviii.  19. 

The  real  point  of  the  declaration,  here,  is  not  that  Abra¬ 
ham  will  command  his  children,  but  that  he  is  such  a  man, 
having  such  qualities  or  qualifications  as  to  be  able  to  com¬ 
mand,  certain  to  command,  and  train  them  into  an  obedi¬ 
ent  and  godly  life.  The  declaration  is,  you  will  observe — 
“For  I  know  him;”  not  simply  and  directly — “For  I 
know  the  fact.”  Every  thing  turns  on  what  is  in  him,  as 
a  father  and  householder — his  qualifications,  dispositions, 
principles,  and  modes  of  life — and  the  declaration  is,  that 
what  he  is  to  do,  will  certainly  come  out  of  what  he  is.  He 
will  certainly  produce,  or  train  a  godly  family,  because  it  is 
in  him,  as  a  man,  to  do  nothing  else  or  less.  The  subject 
raised  then  by  the  declaration  is,  not  so  much  family  train¬ 
ing  and  government,  as  it  is — 

The  personal  and  religious  qualifications,  or  qualifications 
of  character,  necessary  to  success  in  such  family  training  and 
government. 

There  is  almost  no  duty  or  work,  in  this  world,  that  does 
not  require  some  outfit  of  qualifications,  in  order  to  the 
doing  of  it  well.  We  all  understand  that  some  kind  of 
preparation  is  necessary  to  fill  the  place  of  a  magistrate, 
teach  a  school,  drill  a  troop  of  soldiers,  or  do  any  such  thing, 

216 


PARENTAL  QUALIFICATIONS 


217 


in  a  right  manner.  Nay,  we  admit  the  necessity  of  serv¬ 
ing  some  kind  of  apprenticeship,  in  order  to  become  duly 
qualified  for  the  calling,  only  of  a  milliner,  or  a  tailor.  And 
yet,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  we  go  into  what  we  call  the  Chris¬ 
tian  training  of  our  children,  without  any  preparation  for 
it  whatever,  and  apparently  without  any  such  conviction 
of  negligence  or  absurdity,  as  at  all  disturbs  our  assurance 
in  what  we  do.  Not  that  young  parents,  and  especially 
young  mothers,  are  not  often  heard  lamenting  their  con¬ 
scious  insufficiency  for  the  charge  that  is  put  upon  them, 
but  that,  in  such  regrets,  they  commonly  mean  nothing 
more  than  that  they  feel  very  tenderly,  and  want  to  do 
better  things  than,  in  fact,  any  body  can.  It  does  not 
mean,  as  a  general  thing,  that  they  are  practically  endeav¬ 
oring  to  get  hold  of  such  qualifications  as  they  want,  in 
order  to  their  Christian  success.  After  all,  it  is  likely  to 
be  assumed  that  they  have  their  sufficient  equipment  in 
the  tender  instinct  of  their  natural  affection  itself.  So  they 
go  on,  as  in  a  kind  of  venture,  to  command,  govern,  man¬ 
age,  punish,  teach,  and  turn  about  the  way  of  their  child, 
in  just  such  tempers,  and  ways  of  example  and  views  of  life, 
as  chance  to  be  the  element  of  their  own  disfigured,  ill-be¬ 
gotten  character  at  the  time.  This,  in  short,  is  their  sin — 
the  undoing,  as  it  will  by  and  by  appear,  of  their  children 
— that  they  undertake  their  most  sacred  office,  without  any 
sacred  qualifications;  govern  without  self-government,  dis- 
charge  the  holiest  responsibilities  irresponsibly,  and  thrust 
their  children  into  evil,  by  the  evil  and  bad  mind,  out  of 
which  their  training  proceeds. 

I  know  not  any  thing  that  better  shows  the  utter  incom¬ 
petency  of  mere  natural  affection  as  an  equipment  for  the 
parental  office,  or  that,  in  a  short  way,  proves  the  fixed 


218 


PARENTAL  QUALIFICATIONS 


necessity  in  it,  of  some  broader  competency  and  higher 
qualification,  than  just  to  glance  at  the  real  cruelties,  even 
commonly  perpetrated,  under  just  those  tender,  faithful 
instigations  of  natural  affection,  that  we  so  readily  expect 
to  be  a  kind  of  infallible  protection  to  the  helplessness  of 
infancy.  How  often  is  it  a  fact,  that  the  fondest  parents, 
owing  to  some  want  of  insight,  or  of  patience,  or  even  to 
some  uninstructed,  only  half  intelligent  desire  to  govern 
their  child,  will  do  it  the  greatest  wrongs — stinging  every 
day  and  hour,  the  little  defenseless  being,  committed  to  their 
love,  with  the  sense  of  bitter  injustice;  driving  in  the  plough¬ 
share  of  abuse  and  blame  upon  its  tender  feeling,  by  harsh 
words  and  pettish  chastisements,  when,  in  fact,  the  very 
thing  in  the  child  that  annoys  them  is,  that  they  them¬ 
selves  have  thrown  it  into  a  fit  of  uneasiness  and  partial  dis¬ 
order,  by  their  indiscreet  feeding;  or  that  in  some  appear¬ 
ance  of  irritability,  or  insubjection,  it  has  only  not  the  words 
to  speak  of  its  pain,  or  explain  its  innocence.  The  little 
child’s  element  of  existence  becomes,  in  this  manner,  not 
seldom,  an  element  of  bitter  wrong,  and  the  sting  of  wounded 
justice  grows  in,  so  to  speak,  poisoning  the  soul  all  through, 
by  its  immedicable  rancor.  The  pain  of  such  wrong  goes 
deeper,  too,  than  many  fancy.  No  other  creature  suffers 
under  conscious  injury  so  intensely.  And  the  mischief 
done  is  only  aggravated  by  the  fact  that  the  sufferer  has 
no  power  of  redress,  and  has  no  alternative  permitted,  but 
either  to  be  cowed  into  a  weak  and  cringing  submission,  or 
else,  when  his  nobler  nature  has  too  much  stuff  in  it  for 
that,  to  be  stiffened  in  hate  and  the  bitter  grudges  of  wrong. 
I  know  not  any  thing  more  more  sad  to  think  of,  than  the 
cruelties  put  upon  children  in  this  manner.  It  makes  up  a 
chapter  which  few  persons  read,  and  which  almost  every 


PARENTAL  QUALIFICATIONS 


219 


body  takes  for  granted  can  not  exist.  For  the  honor  of  our 
human  nature,  I  wish  it  could  not;  and  that  what  we  call 
maternal  affection,  the  softest,  dearest,  most  self-sacrificing 
of  all  earthly  forms  of  tenderness  and  fidelity,  were,  at  least, 
sufficient  to  save  the  dishonor,  which,  alas!  it  is  not;  for 
these  wrongs  are,  in  fact,  the  cruelties  of  motherhood,  and 
as  often,  I  may  add,  of  an  even  over-fond  motherhood,  as 
any — wrongs  of  which  the  doers  are  unconscious,  and  which 
never  get  articulated,  save  by  the  sobbings  of  the  little 
bosom,  where  the  sting  of  injury  is  felt. 

Here,  then,  at  just  the  point  where  we  should,  least  of 
all,  look  for  it,  viz.:  at  the  point  of  maternal  affection  itself, 
we  have  displayed,  in  sadly  convincing  evidence,  the  need 
and  high  significance  of  those  better  qualifications  of  mind 
and  character,  by  which  the  training  of  children  becomes 
properly  Christian,  and  upon  which,  as  being  such,  the  suc¬ 
cess  of  that  training  depends.  Few  persons,  I  apprehend, 
have  any  conception,  on  the  other  hand,  of  the  immense 
number  and  sweep  of  the  disqualifications  that,  in  nom¬ 
inally  or  even  really  Christian  parents,  go  in  to  hinder,  and 
spoil  of  all  success,  the  religious  nurture  of  their  children. 
Sometimes  the  disqualification  is  this,  and  sometimes  it  is 
that;  sometimes  conscious,  sometimes  unconscious;  some¬ 
times  observable  by  others  and  well  understood,  and  some¬ 
times  undiscovered.  The  variety  is  infinite,  and  the  modes 
of  combination  subtle,  to  such  a  degree,  that  persons  taken 
to  be  eminently  holy  in  their  fife,  will  have  all  their  pray¬ 
ers  and  counsels  blasted,  by  some  hidden  fatality,  whose 
root  is  never  known,  or  suspected,  whether  by  others,  or 
possibly  by  themselves.  The  wonder  that  children,  whose 
parents  were  in  high  esteem  for  their  piety,  should  so  often 


220 


PARENTAL  QUALIFICATIONS 


v 


grow  up  into  a  vicious  and  ungodly  life,  would,  I  think,  give 
way  to  just  the  contrary  wonder,  if  only  some  just  concep¬ 
tion  were  had  of  the  various,  multifarious,  unknown,  un¬ 
suspected  disqualifications,  by  which  modes  of  nurture, 
otherwise  good,  are  fatally  poisoned. 

Sometimes,  for  example,  it  is  a  fatal  mischief,  going  before 
on  the  child,  but  probably  unknown  to  the  world,  that  the 
parents,  one  or  both,  or  it  may  be  the  mother  especially, 
does  not  accept  the  child  willingly,  but  only  submits  to  the 
maternal  office  and  charge,  as  to  some  hard  necessity. 
This  charge  is  going  to  detain  her  at  home,  and  limit  her 
freedom.  Or  it  will  take  her  away  from  the  shows  and 
pleasures  for  which  she  is  living.  Or  it  will  burden  her 
days  and  nights  with  cares  that  weary  her  self-indulgence. 
Or  she  is  not  fond  of  children,  and  never  means  to  be  fond 
of  them — they  are  not  worth  the  trouble  they  cost.  In¬ 
dulging  these  and  such  like  discontents,  unwisely  and  even 
cruelly  provoked,  not  unlikely,  by  the  unchristian  discon¬ 
tents  and  foolish  speeches  of  her  husband,  she  poisons  both 
herself  and  her  child  beforehand,  and  receives  it  with  no 
really  glad  welcome,  when  she  takes  it  to  her  bosom. 
Strange  mortal  perversity  that  can  thus  repel,  as  a  harsh 
intrusion,  one  of  God’s  dearest  gifts;  that  which  is  the  date 
of  the  house  in  its  coming,  and  comes  to  unseal  a  new  pas¬ 
sion,  whereby  life  itself  shall  be  duplicated  in  meaning,  as 
in  love  and  duty !  This  abuse  of  marriage  is,  in  fact,  an 
offense  against  nature,  and  is  no  doubt  bitterly  offensive 
to  God.  Though  commonly  spoken  of,  in  a  way  of  aston¬ 
ishing  lightness,  it  is  just  that  sin,  by  which  every  good 
possibility  of  the  family  is  corrupted.  What  can  two  par¬ 
ents  do  for  the  child,  they  only  submit  to  look  upon,  and 
take  as  a  foundling  to  their  care?  If  they  have  some  de- 


PARENTAL  QUALIFICATIONS 


221 


gree  of  evidence  in  them  that  they  are  Christian  disciples, 
they  will  have  fatally  clouded  that  evidence,  by  a  contest 
with  God’s  Providence,  so  irreverent  to  Him,  and  so  cruel 
to  their  child.  If  now,  at  last,  they  somewhat  love  the  child, 
which  is  theirs  by  compulsion,  what  office  of  a  really  Chris¬ 
tian  nurture  can  they  fill  in  its  behalf?  They  are  under  a 
complete  and  total  disqualification,  as  respects  the  duties 
of  their  charge.  They  are  out  of  rest  in  God,  out  of  con¬ 
fidence  toward  Him,  hindered  in  their  prayers,  lost  to  that 
sweetness  of  love  and  peace  which  ought  to  be  the  element 
of  their  house.  Delving  on  thus,  from  such  a  point  of  be¬ 
ginning,  and  assuming  the  possible  chance  of  success,  in 
what  they  may  do  in  the  spirit  of  such  a  beginning,  is  sim¬ 
ply  absurd.  What  can  they  do  in  training  a  child  for  God, 
which  they  have  accepted,  at  his  hands,  only  as  being  thrust 
upon  them  by  compulsion? 

I  might  speak  of  other  disqualifications  that  have  a  simi¬ 
lar  character,  as  implying  some  disagreement  with  Provi¬ 
dence.  But  it  must  suffice  to  say  generally,  that  there  can 
be  no  such  thing  as  a  genuine  Christian  nurture  that  is  out 
of  peace  with  God’s  Providence — in  any  respect.  On  the 
contrary,  it  is  when  that  peace  is  the  element  of  the  house, 
and  sweetens  every  thing  in  it — pain,  sickness,  loss,  the  bit¬ 
ter  cup  of  poverty,  every  ill  of  adversity  or  sting  of  wrong 
— then  it  is,  and  there,  as  nowhere  else,  that  children  are 
most  sure  to  grow  up  into  God’s  beauty,  and  a  blessed  and 
good  life.  The  child  that  is  born  to  such  keeping,  and  lov¬ 
ingly  lapped  in  the  peaceful  trust  of  Providence,  is  born  to 
a  glorious  heritage.  On  the  other  hand,  where  the  en¬ 
deavor  and  life-struggle  of  the  house  is,  at  bottom,  a  fight 
with  Providence;  envious,  eager,  anxious,  out  of  content, 
out  of  rest,  full  of  complaint  and  railings,  it  is  impossible 


222 


PARENTAL  QUALIFICATIONS 


that  any  thing  Christian  should  grow  in  such  an  element. 
The  disqualification  is  complete. 

Another  whole  class  of  disqualifications  require  to  be 
named  by  themselves;  those  I  mean  which  are  caused  by 
a  bad  or  false  morality  in  the  parties,  at  some  point  where 
the  failure  is  not  suspected,  and  misses  being  corrected  by 
the  slender  and  very  partial  experience  of  their  discipleship. 

They  are  persons,  for  example,  who  make  much  of  prin¬ 
ciples  in  their  words,  and  really  think  that  they  are  gov¬ 
erned  by  principles,  when,  in  fact,  they  do  everything  for 
some  reason  of  policy,  and  value  their  principles,  more  en¬ 
tirely  than  they  know,  for  what  they  are  worth  in  the  com¬ 
putations  of  policy.  Contrivance,  artifice,  or  sometimes 
cunning,  is  the  element  of  the  house.  A  subtle,  inveterate 
habit  of  scheming  creeps  into  all  the  reasons  of  duty;  and 
duty  is  done,  not  for  duty’s  sake,  but  for  the  reasons,  or 
prudential  benefits  to  be  secured  by  it.  Even  the  praying 
of  the  house  takes  on  a  prudential  air,  much  as  if  it  were 
done  for  some  reason  not  stated.  A  stranger  in  the  house, 
seeing  no  scandalous  wrong,  but  a  fine  show  of  principle, 
has  a  certain  sense  of  coldness  upon  him,  which  he  can  not 
account  for.  How  much  of  true  Christian  nurture  there 
may  be  in  such  a  house,  it  is  not  difficult  to  judge.  Here, 
probably,  is  going  to  be  one  of  the  cases,  where  everybody 
wonders  that  children  brought  up  so  correctly,  turn  out  so 
badly.  It  is  not  understood  that  such  children  were  brought 
up  to  know  principles,  only  as  a  stunted  undergrowth  of 
prudence,  and  that  now  the  result  appears. 

Again  there  is,  in  some  persons,  who  appear,  in  all  other 
respects,  to  be  Christian,  a  strange  defect  of  truth  or  truth¬ 
fulness.  They  are  not  conscious  of  it.  They  would  take 


PARENTAL  QUALIFICATIONS 


223 


it  as  a  cruel  injustice,  were  they  only  to  suspect  their  ac¬ 
quaintances  of  holding  such  an  estimate  of  them.  And  yet 
there  is  a  want  of  truth  in  every  sort  of  demonstration  they 
make.  It  is  not  their  words  only  that  lie,  but  their  voice, 
air,  action,  their  every  putting  forth  has  a  lying  character. 
The  atmosphere  they  live  in  is  an  atmosphere  of  pretense. 
Their  virtues  are  affectations.  Their  compassions  and  sym¬ 
pathies  are  the  airs  they  put  on.  Their  friendship  is  their 
mood  and  nothing  more.  And  yet  they  do  not  know  it. 
They  mean,  it  may  be,  no  fraud.  They  only  cheat  them¬ 
selves  so  effectually  as  to  believe,  that  what  they  are  only 
acting  is  their  truth.  And,  what  is  difficult  to  reconcile, 
they  have  a  great  many  Christian  sentiments,  they  main¬ 
tain  prayer  as  a  habit,  and  will  sometimes  speak  intelli¬ 
gently  of  matters  of  Christian  experience.  But  how  dread¬ 
ful  must  be  the  effect  of  such  a  character,  on  the  simple, 
trustful  soul  of  a  little  child.  When  the  crimen  falsi  is  in 
every  thing  heard,  and  looked  upon,  and  done,  he  may  grow 
up  into  a  hypocrite,  or  a  thief,  but  what  shall  make  him  a 
genuine  Christian? 

In  the  same  manner,  I  could  go  on  to  show  a  multitude 
of  disqualifications  for  the  office  of  a  genuine  Christian 
nurture,  that  are  created  by  a  bad  or  defective  morality,  in 
parents  who  live  a  credibly  Christian  life.  They  make  a 
great  virtue,  it  may  be,  of  frugality  or  economy,  and  settle 
every  thing  into  a  scale  of  insupportable  parsimony  and 
meanness.  Or,  they  make  a  praise  of  generous  living,  and 
run  it  into  a  profligate  and  spendthrift  habit.  Or,  they 
make  such  a  virtue  of  honor  and  magnanimity,  as  to  set  the 
opinions  and  principles  of  men  in  deference,  above  the  prin¬ 
ciples  of  God.  Or,  they  get  their  chief  motives  of  action 
out  of  the  appearances  of  virtue,  and  not  out  of  its  realities. 


224 


PARENTAL  QUALIFICATIONS 


There  is  no  end  to  the  impostures  of  bad  morality,  that  find 
a  place  in  the  lives  of  reputably  Christian  persons.  They 
are  generally  too  subtle  to  be  detected  by  the  inspection  of 
their  consciousness,  and  very  commonly  pass  unobserved 
by  others.  And  yet  they  have  power  to  poison  the  nurture 
of  the  house,  even  though  it  appears  to  be,  in  some  respects, 
Christian.  Hence  the  profound  necessity  that  Christian 
parents,  consciously  meaning  to  bring  up  their  children 
for  God,  should  make  a  thorough  inspection  of  their  moral¬ 
ity  itself,  to  find  if  there  be  any  bad  spot  in  it;  knowing  that, 
as  certainly  as  there  is,  it  will  more  or  less  fatally  corrupt 
their  children. 

We  have  still  another  whole  class  of  disqualifications  to 
speak  of,  that  belong,  as  vices,  to  the  Christian  life  itself, 
and  will,  as  much  more  certainly,  be  ruinous  in  their  effects. 
Some  of  them  would  never  be  thought  of  as  disqualifica¬ 
tions  for  the  Christian  training  of  children,  and  yet  they 
are  so,  in  a  degree  to  even  cut  off  the  reasonable  hope  of 
success.  Probably  a  great  part  of  the  cases  of  disaster, 
that  occur  in  the  training  of  Christian  families,  are  refer¬ 
able  to  these  Christian  vices  which  are  commonly  not  put 
down  as  evidences  of  apostasy,  or  any  radical  defect  of 
Christian  principle,  because  they  are  not  supposed  to  imply 
a  discontinuance  of  prayer,  or  a  fatal  subjection  to  the 
spirit  of  this  world. 

Sanctimony,  for  example,  as  we  commonly  use  the  term, 
is  one  of  these  vices.  It  describes  what  we  conceive  to  be 
a  saintly,  or  over-saintly  air  and  manner,  when  there  is  a 
much  inferior  degree  of  sanctity  in  the  life.  There  is  no 
hypocrisy  in  it,  for  there  is  no  intention  to  deceive;  but 
there  is  a  legal,  austere,  conscientiousness,  which  keeps  bn 


PARENTAL  QUALIFICATIONS 


225 


all  the  solemnities  and  longitudes  of  expression,  just  be¬ 
cause  there  is  too  little  of  God’s  love  and  joy  in  the  feeling, 
to  play  in  the  smiles  of  gladness  and  liberty.  Now  it  is 
the  little  child’s  way,  to  get  his  first  lessons  from  the  looks 
and  faces  round  him.  And  what  can  be  worse,  or  do  more 
to  set  him  off  from  all  piety,  by  a  fixed  aversion,  than  to 
have  gotten  such  impressions  of  it  only,  as  he  takes  from 
this  always  unblessed,  tedious,  look  of  sanctimony.  What 
can  a  poor  child  do,  when  the  sense  of  nature  and  natural 
life,  the  smiles,  glad  voices,  and  cheerful  notes  of  play,  are 
all  overcast  and  gloomed,  or,  as  it  were,  forbidden,  by  that 
ghostly  piety  in  which  it  is  itself  being  brought  up?  And 
yet  the  world  will  wonder  immensely  at  the  strange  per¬ 
versity  of  the  child  that  grows  up  under  such  a  saintly 
training,  to  be  known  as  a  person  mortally  averse  to  religion ! 
Why,  it  would  be  a  much  greater  wonder  if  he  could  think 
of  it  even  with  patience ! 

Bigotry  is  another  of  these  Christian  vices,  and  yet  no 
one  will  assume  his  infallible  capacity,  in  the  matter  of 
Christian  training,  as  confidently  as  the  bigot.  Has  he  not 
the  truth?  is  he  not  opposite,  as  possible,  to  all  error?  has 
any  man  a  greater  abhorrence  of  all  laxity  and  all  varia¬ 
tion  from  the  standards  ?  Is  he  not  in  a  way  of  speaking  out 
always,  and  giving  faithful  testimonies  in  his  house  ?  Yes, 
that  must  be  admitted;  and  yet  he  is  a  man  that  mauls 
every  truth  of  God,  and  every  gentle  and  lovely  feeling  of 
a  genuinely  Christian  character.  His  intensities  are  made 
by  his  narrowness  and  hate,  and  not  by  his  love.  He  fills 
the  house  with  a  noise  of  piety,  and  may  dog  his  children 
possibly  into  some  kind  of  conformity  with  his  opinions. 
But  he  is  much  more  likely,  by  this  brassy  din,  to  only  stun 
their  intelligence  and  make  them  incapable  of  any  true 


226 


PARENTAL  QUALIFICATIONS  . 


religious  impressions.  There  is  no  class  of  children  that 
turn  out  worse,  in  general,  than  the  children  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  bigots. 

The  vice  of  Christian  fanaticism  operates,  in  another 
and  different  way,  but  with  a  commonly  disastrous  effect. 
The  fanatic  is  a  man  who  mixes  false  fire  with  the  true,  and 
burns  with  a  partly  diabolical  heat.  He  means  to  be 
superlatively  Christian,  but  it  happens  that  what  he  gets, 
above  others,  is  the  addition  of  something  to  his  passions, 
which  would  be  more  genuine,  if  it  were  in  his  affections. 
He  scorches,  but  never  melts.  He  is  most  impatient  of 
what  is  ordinary  and  common,  and  does  not  sufficiently 
honor  the  solid  works  and  experiences  of  that  goodness 
which  is  fixed  and  faithful.  This  kind  of  character  makes 
a  fiery  element  for  childish  piety  to  grow  in.  What  can 
the  child  become,  or  learn  to  be,  where  every  thing  is  in 
this  key  of  excess  ?  It  is  as  if  there  were  a  simoon  of  piety 
blowing  through  the  house,  and  it  dries  away  all  gentle 
longings  and  holiest  sympathies  of  the  child’s  affectionate 
nature,  so  that  all  attractions  God-ward  are  suspended.  A 
certain  violence  and  harshness  in  the  parental  fanaticism, 
wakens  often  the  sense  of  injustice  too,  or  hate,  and  makes 
the  superlative  piety  appear  to  be  no  better,  after  all,  than 
it  might  be. 

Another  Christian  vice  is  created  by  a  censorious  habit. 
Not  by  that  habit  of  judging  and  condemning,  which  takes 
a  pleasure  in  condemnation  itself — that  is  the  vice  of  a 
Christless  character,  not  of  a  Christian — but  there  is  a  large 
class  of  disciples  who  think  it  a  kind  of  duty,  and  a  just 
acknowledgment  of  the  fact  of  human  depravity,  to  be  see¬ 
ing  always  dark  things.  They  judge  evil  judgments  be¬ 
cause  they  will  be  more  faithful,  and  will  be  only  doing  to 


PARENTAL  QUALIFICATIONS 


227 


others  just  as  they  do  to  themselves.  This  habit  is  like  a 
poisonous  atmosphere  in  the  house.  It  kills  all  springing 
sentiments  of  confidence  and  esteem.  That  charity  which 
believeth  all  things,  and  hopeth  all  things,  appears  to  be 
already  stifled  in  it.  What  shall  a  child  aspire  to,  when 
there  is  no  really  estimable  growth,  and  good,  and  beauty, 
anywhere  ? 

It  is  a  great  vice  also,  as  regards  the  Christian  training 
of  a  family,  that  there  is  a  habit  in  the  parents  of  receiving 
nothing  by  authority,  and  really  disowning  authority  in 
all  matters  of  religion.  God  reigns  himself  by  authority, 
and  because  he  is  God;  and  parents  are  to  govern  by  au¬ 
thority,  partly,  in  the  same  manner.  If  the  parent  is  a  de¬ 
bater  with  God  in  every  thing,  saying  always  No,  to  God, 
till  he  has  gotten  his  proofs,  the  spirit  will  go  through  the 
house.  The  children  will  demand  a  reason  for  every  thing 
required,  and  will  put  the  parents  always  on  trial,  instead 
of  being  put  under  authority  themselves.  Nothing  breaks 
down  faster  the  religious  conscience,  or  untones  more  com¬ 
pletely  the  divine  affinities  of  the  childish  nature,  than  to 
have  lost  the  feeling,  ceased  to  hear  the  ring,  of  authority. 
Abraham  could  believe  God’s  words,  and  so  it  was  in  him  to 
command  his  children  after  him. 

Anxiousness  is  another  infirmity,  or  vice  of  character, 
»  that  has  always  a  noxious  effect  in  the  training  of  Christian 
families.  Where  there  is  but  a  little  faith,  there  is  apt  to 
be  great  anxiousness.  And  nothing  will  so  dreadfully  tor¬ 
ment  the  life  of  a  child,  as  to  be  perpetually  teased  by  the 
anxious  words  and  looks  and  interferences  of  this  unhappy 
superintendence.  And  if  the  pretext  given  is  a  concern  for 
the  child’s  piety,  the  effect  is  only  so  much  more  disastrous. 
What  can  he  think  of  piety,  when  it  has  only  worried  him 


228 


PARENTAL  QUALIFICATIONS 


at  every  play  and  every  natural  pleasure  of  his  life?  Just 
contrary  to  this  feeble,  half-believing,  half-Christian  vice 
of  anxiety,  the  parental  habit  should  be  one  of  confidence; 
gladdened  always  in  the  faith  that  God  is  the  child’s  cov¬ 
enanted  keeper,  and  will  never  fail  to  guard  the  trust  that 
is  faithfully  committed  to  his  hands,  never  allow  to  grow 
up  in  sin  what  parental  fidelity  is  training,  by  all  reasonable 
diligence,  for  a  godly  life. 

This  enumeration  of  the  moral  and  religious  vices,  that 
spot  the  beauty  and  mar  the  completeness  of  character,  in 
one  way  or  another,  of  almost  all  merely  ordinary  Chris¬ 
tians,  could  be  indefinitely  extended.  Nothing,  in  fact,  is 
farther  off,  generally,  from  the  truth,  than  the  assumption, 
by  nominally  Christian  parents,  of  their  sufficiency,  or  their 
properly  qualified  state,  as  regards  the  training  of  their 
children.  They  are  almost  all  disqualified,  or  under-quali¬ 
fied,  to  such  a  degree  as  to  make  their  work  perilous,  and 
as  ought  to  fill  them  with  real  concern  for  their  success. 
What  are  we  all,  in  the  merely  initial  state  of  Christian  liv¬ 
ing,  but  diseased  patients,  just  entered  into  hospital?  We 
are  not  all  in  the  same  sort  of  weakness  and  defect,  but  all 
weak  and  defective — one-sided,  passionate,  broken  in  prin¬ 
ciple,  corrupted  by  mixed  motive,  lame  in  faith.  How  fool¬ 
ish  then  is  it  for  us  to  be  assuming  that,  because  we  have 
come  to  Christ  and  begun  to  be  disciples,  we  are  ready,  of 
course,  for  the  holy  nurture  and  safe  ordering  of  our  families. 
How  foolish,  also,  to  be  wondering,  as  we  so  often  do,  that 
the  children  of  one  or  another  Christian,  or  reputedly  good 
Christian  family,  turn  out  so  ill — as  if  it  were  some  evidence 
of  a  singularly  perverse  and  reprobate  nature  in  such  chil¬ 
dren.  Little  do  we  know  what  subtle  poisons  were  hid  in 


PARENTAL  QUALIFICATIONS 


229 


what  we  took  to  be  the  good  Christian  piety  of  those  fami¬ 
lies.  After  all,  it  may  have  been  much  less  good,  or  more 
exceptionably  good,  than  we  thought. 

It  may  occur  to  some  of  you,  as  a  discouraging  disad¬ 
vantage,  that,  where  one  parent  is  duly  qualified  for  the 
training  of  the  children  in  piety,  the  other  is  not,  but  is  in 
fact,  a  real  hindrance  to  the  right  and  safe  proceeding  of 
the  endeavor.  The  parents  are  never  equally  well  quali¬ 
fied;  and  one,  or  the  other  of  them,  is  likely  to  be  a  good 
deal  out  of  line,  in  some  kind  of  personal  defect,  or  obliquity 
of  practice.  Sometimes  one  of  them  will  be  a  purely  worldly- 
minded  person,  or  an  unbeliever,  or,  it  may  be,  even  fatally 
corrupted  by  vicious  habits.  There  is,  accordingly,  no  hope 
of  concert  in  the  endeavor  to  train  the  children  up  in  piety. 
And  this,  the  other  party,  who  is  more  commonly  the 
mother,  may  be  tempted  in  some  hour  of  discouragement 
to  think,  amounts  to  a  fatal  disqualification,  such  as  quite 
takes  away  the  rational  confidence  of  success.  Let  me 
come  to  her  aid,  in  the  assurance  that  God  connects  Him¬ 
self  even  the  more  certainly  with  one  party,  if  only  there  is, 
in  that  one,  a  believing  and  truly  faithful  spirit,  prepared 
for  the  work.  He  pledges  himself  in  formal  promise  to  one 
party,  in  all  such  conditions,  declaring  that  the  believing 
wife  sanctifies,  takes  away  the  defect  of,  the  unbelieving 
husband.  Let  her  also  consider  what  is  said  of  young 
Timothy — how  the  apostle  figures  the  faith  of  the  good 
grandmother,  and  her  daughter  the  good  mother,  descend¬ 
ing  on  Timothy  in  the  third  generation,  when  his  father, 
all  this  time,  was  a  Greek,  probably  an  unbeliever  and  idol¬ 
ater.  There  was  not  force  enough,  you  perceive,  in  all  that 
father’s  influence  to  break  the  descent  of  the  faith  of  these 
two  godly  mothers  upon  his  son. 


230 


PARENTAL  QUALIFICATIONS 


This,  then,  is  the  conclusion  to  which  we  are  brought: 
that  qualifications  are  wanted  for  this  work  as  for  almost 
no  other,  and  that  where  they  are  really  had,  if  it  be  only 
by  one  party,  they  are  not  likely  to  fail.  But  how  shall 
they  be  obtained?  that  is  the  question.  Who  is  subtle 
enough  to  go  through  this  hunt  of  the  character,  and  actu¬ 
ally  find  every  loose  joint  of  morality  in  his  practice,  every 
vice  of  defect,  or  distemper  in  his  Christian  life?  No  one, 
I  answer — that  is  impossible.  No  weeding  process,  carried 
on  by  ourselves,  ever  did  or  can  extirpate  our  evils.  The 
only  true  method  here  is  the  method  of  faith;  to  be  more 
perfectly  and  wholly  trusted  to  God,  more  singly,  simply 
Christian.  God’s  touch  in  us  can  feel  out  every  thing; 
every  most  subtle  spot  of  wrong  or  weakness  he  can  heal. 
The  reason  why  we  have  so  many  of  these  spots  and  dis¬ 
qualifying  vices  is,  that  we  are  only  a  little  Christian. 
Whereas,  if  we  could  be  fully  entered  into  Christ’s  keeping, 
and  have  our  whole  consciousness  overspread  and  clothed 
by  his  righteousness,  we  should  live,  in  every  part,  and  be 
kept  in  holy  equilibrium  above  our  defects  and  disorders, 
all  the  time.  Put  ye  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  then  as  a 
complete  investiture,  and  there  will  be  no  poison  flowing 
down  upon  your  children,  from  any  thing  in  your  life  and 
example.  If  Christ  is  made,  to  those  who  trust  in  him,  wis¬ 
dom,  righteousness,  sanctification,  and  redemption,  what 
is  there  that  he  can  not  and  will  not  be  made?  Wonderful 
is  the  completeness  of  any  soul  that  is  complete  in  him. 
How  pure  and  perfect  the  morality,  how  wise  the  discre¬ 
tion,  how  gentle  and  full,  and  free,  the  life  in  which  he  lives  I 
The  house  and  its  discipline  become  a  most  joyous  ele¬ 
ment  to  children,  when  thus  administered.  Every  thing 
good  in  it  is  welcome,  even  the  restraints  and  supervisions; 


PARENTAL  QUALIFICATIONS 


231 


for  they  have  a  general  air  of  confidence  and  hope  and  gen¬ 
tle  feeling,  that  wins  and  not  repels.  Even  authority  itself 
.is  welcome,  because  it  is  enforced  by  character,  and  not  by 
tones  of  violence,  or  dictatorial  airs  of  heat  and  menace. 
Whoever  comes  thus  into  God’s  full  love,  to  be  in  it  and  of 
it,  has  a  true  equipment  for  the  family  administration.  If 
it  can  be  said — Herein  is  Love,  what  else  can  really  be 
wanting  ?  This  bond  of  perfectness,  brings  all  needed  quali¬ 
fications  with  it,  so  that  when  the  love  or  the  faith  working 
by  it,  really  reigns  and  tempers  the  man  by  its  impulse,  it 
can  truly  be  said,  as  of  Abraham — For  I  know  him,  that 
he  will  command  his  children  and  his  household  after  him, 
and  they  shall  keep  the  way  of  the  Lord. 


Ill 


PHYSICAL  NURTURE,  TO  BE  A  MEANS  OF  GRACE 

“Feed  me  with  food  convenient  for  me,  lest  I  be  full  and  deny  thee, 
and  say,  who  is  the  Lord?” — Proverbs  xxx.  8-9. 

A  most  fit  subject  of  prayer !  And  if  the  feeding  of  an 
adult  person,  such  as  Agur,  has  a  connection  so  intimate 
with  his  religious  life  and  character,  how  much  more  the 
feeding  and  the  physical  nurture  of  a  child.  I  use  the  text, 
therefore,  to  introduce,  for  our  present  consideration,  as  a 
kind  of  first  point,  the  food  or  feeding  of  children,  and  their 
physical  treatment  generally. 

It  will  not  be  incredible  to  any  thoughtful  person,  least 
of  all  to  any  genuinely  philosophic  person,  that  the  treat¬ 
ment  and  fare  of  the  body  has  much  to  do  with  the  quality 
of  the  soul,  or  mind — its  affinities,  passions,  aspirations, 
tempers;  its  powers  of  thought  and  sentiment,  its  imagina¬ 
tions,  its  moral  and  religious  development.  For  the  body 
is  not  only  a  house  to  the  mind  as  other  houses  are,  which 
we  may  live  in  for  a  time  with  no  perceptible  effect  on  our 
character,  but  it  is  a  house  in  the  sense  of  being  the  mind’s 
own  organ;  its  external  life  itself,  the  medium  of  all  its 
action,  the  instrument  of  its  thought  and  feeling,  the  inlet 
also  of  all  its  knowledges  and  impressions,  and  the  instigator, 
by  a  thousand  reactions,  of  all  such  spiritual  riot  and  cor¬ 
ruption  as  have  had  their  leaven  brewed  in  as  many  physi¬ 
cal  abuses  and  disorders.  So  intimate  is  this  connection 
of  mind  and  body,  so  very  close  to  real  oneness  are  they, 

232 


PHYSICAL  NURTURE,  TO  BE  A  MEANS  OF  GRACE  233 


that  no  one  can,  by  any  possibility,  be  a  Christian  in  his 
mind,  and  not  be  in  some  sense  a  Christian  in  his  body.  If 
his  soul  is  to  be  a  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  then  his  body 
must  be.  If  his  soul  is  under  government,  then  his  body 
will  be.  And  if  his  body  is  not  under  government,  then  his 
soul,  by  no  possibility,  can  be;  save  that,  in  every  such  case, 
it  will  and  must  be  under  the  government  of  the  body; 
subject  to  its  power,  swayed  by  all  its  excesses  and  distem¬ 
pers. 

Hence  that  most  determined,  almost  proud,  resolve  of 
the  apostle,  when  he  declares — “I  will  not  be  brought 
under  the  power  of  any.”  Under  the  body?  No!  he  will 
scorn  that  low  kind  of  thraldom.  Meats,  drinks,  appe¬ 
tites — none  of  these  shall  have  the  mastery  in  him.  He 
will  assert  the  supreme  right  of  the  soul  or  person,  above 
the  house  it  lives  in;  so  God’s  pre-eminent  right  in  the  soul. 
He  will  say  to  the  body — “stay  thou  down  there” — as  they 
that  fast  do,  in  fasting;  and,  what  is  more  profoundly, 
more  scientifically  rational  than  fasting,  when  it  is  prac¬ 
ticed  in  the  real  insight  of  its  reasons  ?  It  is  the  soul  rising 
up,  in  God’s  name,  to  assert  herself  over  the  body;  over  its 
appetites,  passions,  tempers,  and,  if  possible,  distempers. 
And  how  often  the  poor,  coarse,  stupid,  sensual,  fast-bound 
slaves  of  the  body,  calling  themselves  disciples,  need  this 
kind  of  war,  and  a  regular  campaign  of  it,  to  get  their  souls 
uppermost  and  trim  themselves  for  the  race. 

One  must  be  a  very  inobservant  person,  not  to  have 
noticed,  that  all  his  finest  and  most  God-ward  aspirations 
are  smothered  under  any  load  of  excess,  or  over-indulgence. 
It  is  as  if  the  body  were  calling  down  all  the  other  powers, 
even  those  of  poetiy,  magnanimity,  and  religion,  to  help 
it  do  the  scarcely  possible  work  of  digestion.  At  that 


234 


PHYSICAL  NURTURE, 


point  they  gather.  The  sense  of  beauty  is  there,  and  the 
soul’s  angel  of  hope,  and  the  testimony  of  God’s  peace,  and 
the  music  of  devotion,  and  the  thrill  of  sermons,  dozing,  all 
together,  and  soughing  in  dull  dreams  round  the  cargo  of 
poppies  in  the  hold  of  the  body.  To  raise  any  fresh  senti¬ 
ment  is  now  impossible.  Even  prayer  itself  is  mired,  and 
can  not  struggle  out.  The  news  of  some  best  friend’s  death 
can  only  be  answered  by  dry  interjections,  and  forced  pos¬ 
tures  of  grief,  that  will  not  find  their  meaning  till  to-mor¬ 
row. 

And  much  the  same  thing  holds  true,  only  under  a  differ¬ 
ent  form,  when  the  body  is  prematurely  diseased  and  broken, 
by  the  excesses  of  self-indulgence.  Its  distempers  will  dis¬ 
temper  the  mind  itself;  its  pains  prick  through  into  the 
sensibilities,  even  of  the  spiritual  nature.  Out  of  the  pits 
of  the  body,  dark  clouds  will  steam  up  into  the  chambers 
of  the  soul,  and  all  the  devils  of  dyspepsia  will  be  hovering 
in  them,  to  scare  away  its  peace,  and  choke  the  god-like 
possibilities,  out  of  which  its  better  motions  should  be 
springing. 

So  important  a  thing,  for  the  religious  life  of  the  soul, 
is  the  feeding  of  the  body.  Vast  multitudes  of  disciples 
have  no  conception  of  the  fact.  Living  in  a  swine’s  body, 
regularly  over-loaded  and  oppressed  every  day  of  their 
lives,  they  wonder  that  so  great  difficulties  and  discourage¬ 
ments  rise  up  to  hinder  the  Christian  clearness  of  their  soul. 
Could  they  but  look  into  Agur’s  prayer,  and  take  the  mean¬ 
ing — feed  me  with  food  convenient  for  me,  lest  I  be  full,  and 
deny  thee,  and  say,  who  is  the  Lord? — they  would  find  a 
real  gospel  in  it.  And  making  it  truly  their  own,  they 
would  dismiss,  at  once,  whole  armies  of  doubts;  their  faith 
would  get  wings  to  rise;  they  would  rest  their  soul  in  an 


TO  BE  A  MEANS  OF  GRACE 


235 


element  of  power,  and  peace,  and  sweetness,  and  would  run 
the  way  of  God’s  commandments  with  a  wonderful  clear¬ 
ness  and  liberty. 

I  have  spoken,  thus  briefly,  to  a  fact  of  adult  experience, 
because  it  is  adult  conviction  which  my  subject  needs  to 
obtain.  To  simply  look  on  children  from  without,  and  tell 
what  effects  will  be  wrought  on  their  religious  tempers  and 
habit  by  their  feeding,  and  the  general  nurture  of  their 
body,  will  not  carry  any  depth  of  conviction  by  itself;  for 
there  is  no  creature  of  God  less  adequately  understood,  or 
conceived,  than  a  child.  And  therefore  it  is  that  I  appeal 
to  parents,  in  this  manner,  requiring  them  to  make  some 
observation  of  themselves;  to  notice  what  becomes  of  them 
and  their  sentiments,  and  senses  of  Christ  and  of  God, 
when  they  are  down  under  the  burdens  of  an  overloaded, 
or  permanently  diseased  body. 

The  principle  I  am  here  asserting,  as  regards  the  re¬ 
ligious  import  of  feeding  and  bodily  nurture,  in  the  case 
of  children,  is  the  same  on  which  the  child  Daniel  and  his 
friends  acted  in  the  choice  of  their  very  simple  and  tem¬ 
perate  diet.  Whether  Daniel  had  been  brought  up  from  his 
infancy  in  this  manner  does  not  appear.  He  may  have 
been  prompted  to  this  choice,  by  a  purely  divine  impulse. 
But  whether  he  came  into  it  by  one  method  or  the  other, 
makes  little  difference;  for,  in  either  case,  the  most  im¬ 
portant  matter  is  to  observe  the  result,  and  that  such  kind 
of  feeding  was  chosen,  or  instituted,  for  the  sake  of  the  re¬ 
sult  that  would  follow,  on  perfectly  natural  principles,  viz.: 
to  give  greater  clearness  to  the  religious  perceptions  and 
sentiments  of  the  soul.  The  body  grew  toward  perfect 
health,  because  it  was  burdened  and  distempered  by  no  ex¬ 
cesses.  And  the  soul  was  just  as  much  more  open  to  God 


236 


PHYSICAL  NURTURE, 

and  the  sense  of  unseen  things,  as  the  body  was  more  serenely 
and  blissfully  well,  in  its  physical  condition.  In  this  man¬ 
ner  the  child’s  nature  grew  apace,  in  the  molds  of  a  per¬ 
fectly  evened  judgment,  and  was  also  wonderfully  opened 
to  God  and  all  highest  discoveries  of  his  will.  In  a  certain 
sense,  he  became  a  great  prophet  by  his  physical  nurture — 
God  gave  him  knowledge,  thus,  and  skill,  in  all  learning 
and  wisdom,  and  he  had  understanding  in  all  visions  and 
dreams.  His  feeding  stood  with  his  health,  and  with  all 
purest  affinities  and  deepest  openings  toward  God. 

Let  us  glance  a  moment,  now,  at  some  of  the  points  here 
involved,  and  distinguish,  if  we  can,  the  results  that  are 
always  depending  on  the  right  feeding  of  children. 

The  child  is  taken,  when  his  training  begins,  in  a  state 
of  naturalness,  as  respects  all  the  bodily  tastes  and  tem¬ 
pers,  and  the  endeavor  should  be  to  keep  him  in  that  key; 
to  let  no  stimulation  of  excess,  or  delicacy,  disturb  the  sim¬ 
plicity  of  nature,  and  no  sensual  pleasuring,  in  the  name  of 
food,  become  a  want  or  expectation  of  his  appetite.  Any 
artificial  appetite  begun,  is  the  beginning  of  distemper, 
disease,  and  a  general  disturbance  of  natural  proportion. 
Intemperance !  the  woes  of  intemperate  drink !  how  dismal 
the  story,  when  it  is  told;  how  dreadful  the  picture,  when 
we  look  upon  it.  From  what  do  the  father  and  mother 
recoil,  with  a  greater  and  more  total  horror  of  feeling,  than 
the  possibility  that  their  child  is  to  be  a  drunkard  ?  Little 
do  they  remember  that  he  can  be,  even  before  he  has  so 
much  as  tasted  the  cup;  and  that  they  themselves  can 
make  him  so,  virtually,  without  meaning  it,  even  before  he 
has  gotten  his  language  1  Nine-tenths  of  the  intemperate 
drinking  begins,  not  in  grief  and  destitution,  as  we  so  often 


TO  BE  A  MEANS  OF  GRACE 


237 


hear,  but  in  vicious  feeding.  Here  the  scale  of  order  and 
simplicity  is  first  broken,  and  then  what  shall  a  distempered 
or  distemperate  life  run  to,  more  certainly,  than  to  what 
is  intemperate?  False  feeding  genders  false  appetite,  and 
when  the  soul  is  burning,  all  through,  in  the  fires  of  false 
appetite,  what  is  that  but  a  universal  uneasiness?  and  what 
will  this  uneasiness  more  naturally  do,  than  betake  itself  to 
the  pleasurable  excitement  of  drink?  What  is  wanted  is 
a  sensation — the  soul  is  aching  for  a  sensation;  for  it  is  one 
of  the  miseries  of  food  that  the  tasting  pleasure  is  soon 
over  and  the  cloyed  body  turns  away  in  disgust;  one  of  the 
excellencies  of  drink,  that  the  sensation  is  a  long  one,  and 
may  be  easily  drawn  out  so  as  to  cover  whole  hours  of  dura¬ 
tion.  Food,  sleep,  friends,  the  self-enjoyment  of  character 
— what  an  excellent  and  easy  substitute  it  is  for  them  all ! 
Thus,  for  example,  when  a  very  young  child,  taken  by  the 
captivating  flavor  of  some  dainty  or  confectionery,  has  re¬ 
fused  to  restrain  itself,  and  has  kept  on,  as  by  a  kind  of  spell, 
repeating  the  sensation  again  and  again,  till  the  organs, 
dried  and  cloyed  by  excess,  refuse  to  give  it  longer,  you  will 
see  that  a  wonderful  uneasiness  follows,  asking  what  sensa¬ 
tion  next?  and  really  there  is  nothing  that  can  fill  the 
vacant  space,  or  quiet  the  uneasiness.  One  toy  or  another 
will  be  seized  and  thrown  into  the  fire.  The  plays  that 
before  satisfied  look  insipid  and  do  not  please.  The  world 
goes  ill  because  there  is  nothing  good  enough  in  it,  and  a 
general  cry  finishes  the  overdone  pleasure  of  the  day.  And 
here  you  have  in  small,  as  in  a  single  view,  just  that  misery 
of  distemper  and  uneasiness  which  is  wrought,  by  the  bad 
feeding  of  childhood,  and  prepares  the  vice  of  intemperance, 
even  before  it  appears. 

It  is  only  a  larger  and  more  comprehensive  mischief  of 


238 


PHYSICAL  NURTURE, 


the  wrong  feeding  of  children,  that  it  puts  them  under  the 
body,  teaches  them  to  value  bodily  sensations,  makes  them 
sensual  every  way,  and  sets  them  lusting  in  every  kind  of 
excess.  The  vice  of  impurity  is  taught,  how  commonly, 
thus,  at  the  mother’s  table.  The  finer  sentiments  and  wits 
of  children  are  smothered  also  and  deadened,  by  this  same 
animalizing  process.  They  make  a  dull  figure  at  school. 
Their  feeling  is  coarse,  their  conscience  weak,  their  passions 
low  and  violent.  Their  higher  affinities,  those  which  ally 
them  to  God  and  character  and  unseen  worlds,  appear  to 
be  closed  up,  and  the  lines  of  their  faces,  particularly  about 
the  mouth,  give  a  low  sensual  expression,  even  when  the 
upper-head  is  large  and  full.  A  certain  degree  of  selfishness 
is  likely  to  be  somehow  developed  in  children,  for  sin  of  every 
kind  is  selfish,  but  the  lowest,  meanest,  and  most  utterly 
degraded  type  of  selfishness,  is  the  sensual;  that  which 
centers  in  the  body,  and  makes  every  thing  bend  to  bodily 
sensation.  And  yet  the  early  feeding  and  growth  of  chil¬ 
dren  tends,  how  often,  to  just  this  and  nothing  higher.  Say¬ 
ing  nothing  of  genius  and  great  action,  impossible  to  be 
developed  in  this  manner  out  of  the  finest  possible  organiza¬ 
tion,  what  hope  is  there  under  such  abuse  of  nature,  that 
religion  will  there  begin  to  loosen  her  noble  aspirations,  and 
claim  her  sonship  with  God?  What  place  can  the  love  of 
God  find  open,  in  a  soul  that  is  shut  up  under  the  brutish¬ 
ness  of  sensuality?  What  sensibility  is  left  for  Christ  and 
God,  when  the  body  has  become  the  total  manhood? 

And  exactly  this  it  will  most  certainly  be,  if  first  it  be¬ 
comes  the  total  childhood.  We  have  a  way  of  saying,  con¬ 
tinually,  that  children  are  creatures  of  the  senses,  and  we 
please  ourselves  in  making  allowances  for  them  in  this 
manner,  and  raising  expectations  of  them  that  suppose  the 


TO  BE  A  MEANS  OF  GRACE 


239 


likelihood  of  their,  by  and  by,  coming  out  of  their  senses, 
into  the  higher  ranges  of  thought  and  spiritual  impulse. 
But  we  do  not  remember,  always,  the  immense  distinction 
between  being  in  the  senses  and  being  in  the  sensualities; 
between  going  after  the  eyes,  and  going  after  the  stomach; 
between  the  almost  divine  curiosity  of  intelligence,  ex¬ 
ploring  all  objects,  sounds,  and  colors,  to  get  in  the  stock 
of  its  mental  furniture,  and  the  totally  incurious  hankering 
of  appetite,  for  some  finer,  freer  indulgence  of  the  animal 
sensation.  Little  hope  is  there  of  a  child,  who  is  in  the 
senses,  after  this  latter  fashion.  This  he  will  quite  seldom 
or  never  outgrow;  on  the  contrary,  it  will  overgrow  him, 
and  subjugate  all  nobler  impulse  in  him,  by  a  kind  of  natural 
law;  even  as  disease  propagates  more  disease  and  not  health. 
In  this  manner,  a  child  can  be  fairly  put  under  the  body  for 
life,  by  the  time  he  is  five  years  old.  And  just  this,  I  verily 
believe,  is  often  true.  Kindness,  it  may  be,  has  done  it, 
but  it  is  that  kindness  which  is  better  called  cruelty. 
Coarseness  of  feeling,  lowness  of  impulse,  gluttony,  dissipa¬ 
tion,  drunkenness,  adultery — all  foul  passions  that  kennel 
in  a  sensual  soul,  it  has  cherished  as  a  foster-mother;  not 
once  imagining  the  fact,  in  the  indiscreet  feeding  of  the  hap¬ 
less  creature  trusted  to  its  care. 

This,  too,  will  be  rendered  yet  more  probable  by  review¬ 
ing,  briefly,  some  of  the  methods  by  which  a  more  judicious, 
and  more  properly  Christian  feeding  will  conduce  toward 
a  different  and  happier  result. 

First  of  all,  it  will  not  be  a  permitted  practice,  to  quiet 
the  child  in  states  of  irritation,  or  stop  it  in  crying,  or  pacify 
it  in  fits  of  ill-nature,  by  dainties  that  please  the  taste. 
What  is  this  but  a  schooling  and  drawing  out  of  sensation, 


240 


PHYSICAL  NURTURE, 


by  making  it  the  reward  of  just  that  which  is  most  totally 
opposite  to  self-government?  It  must  be  a  very  dull  child 
that  will  not  cry  and  fret  a  great  deal,  when  it  is  so  pleas¬ 
antly  rewarded.  Trained,  in  this  manner,  to  play  ill-nature 
for  sensation’s  sake,  it  will  go  on  rapidly,  in  the  course  of 
double  attainment,  and  will  be  very  soon  perfected,  in  the 
double  character  of  an  ill-natured,  morbid,  sensualist,  and 
a  feigning  cheat  beside.  By  what  method,  or  means,  can 
the  great  themes  of  God  and  religion  get  hold  of  a  soul, 
that  has  learned  to  be  governed  only  by  rewards  of  sensa¬ 
tion,  paid  to  affectations  of  grief  and  deliberate  actings  of 
ill-nature  ?• 

Simplicity  also,  as  opposed  to  luxuries,  condiments,  and 
confections,  is  a  condition  of  all  right  feeding  for  infancy 
and  childhood,  which  ought  to  approve  itself  to  the  most 
ordinary  measure  of  parental  discretion.  Of  course  I  do 
not  mean  to  say  that  the  child  is  never  to  have  his  holiday 
feast — that  would  be  to  cut  him  off  from  another  kind  of 
benefit — I  only  insist  that  he  is  not  to  have  a  perpetual 
holiday  and  be  stimulated  by  continual  flavors  on  his  or¬ 
gans,  till  the  beautiful  simplicity  of  his  appetite  is  gone  and 
nothing  pleases  longer,  but  that  which  is  intense  enough  to 
be  rather  poison  than  food.  Coffee,  for  example — what 
can  be  worse  for  a  child’s  body,  or  his  future  character,  than 
to  be  dosed  every  morning  with  his  cup  of  coffee?  No 
matter  if  he  cries  for  it,  all  the  worse  if  he  does;  for  it  shows 
that  he  has  been  already  taught  to  love  it,  and  is  so  far  taken 
away,  prematurely,  from  the  natural  simplicity  of  his  tastes. 
And  how  is  the  child  going  to  be  drawn  by  the  beauty  of 
God,  and  the  sacred  pleasures  of  God’s  friendship,  when 
thinking  always  of  the  dainties  he  has  had,  or  is  again  to 
have,  and  counting  it  always  the  main  blessing  of  existence, 


TO  BE  A  MEANS  OF  GRACE 


241 


to  have  his  body  seasoned  by  the  flavors  of  sensation?  In¬ 
stead  of  praying,  as  possibly  he  may  be  taught,  in  words — 
“Feed  me  with  food  convenient  for  me” — he  prays,  in  fact, 
from  morning  to  night,  with  all  diseased  longings  and  han¬ 
kerings,  to  be  fed,  in  the  exact  contrary,  with  what  will  most 
increase  his  already  overgrown  sensuality.  In  a  manner 
faithfully  characteristic  of  his  low,  prudential  morality, 
Paley  advises  that  all  children  and  young  persons  should  live 
simply,  because  they  are  now  susceptible  enough  to  relish 
simple  things;  in  order  that,  as  their  tastes  grow  duller  with 
advancing  age,  they  may  allow  themselves  a  freer  indul¬ 
gence  in  the  stimulations  of  appetite,  and  may  so  maintain 
the  feeding  pleasures  to  the  last.  Counsel  not  to  be  ques¬ 
tioned,  even  if  these  pleasures  were  the  chief  end  of  life 
itself.  We  are  only  disappointed  and  vexed  by  the  lowness 
of  it,  when  we  recall,  what  is  the  real  and  true  penalty  of 
youthful  indulgence,  that  it  takes  away  the  possible  relish 
of  truth,  duty,  and  religion,  and  makes  the  soul  forever  in¬ 
accessible  to  these  noblest  powers  of  character  and  blessed¬ 
ness. 

In  a  wise  physical  nurture,  it  is  a  matter  of  great  import 
also  to  regulate  the  times  of  feeding.  For  this  induces  the 
sense  of  order,  which  is  closely  allied  to  a  habit  of  self-gov¬ 
ernment.  If  the  nursing  child  is  simply  stuffed  to  its  last 
limit,  at  any  and  all  hours,  then  it  is  put  in  the  way,  not 
of  intelligent  feeding,  which  is  interspaced  by  rest,  but  of 
always  being  filled  to  its  limit.  The  feeding  must,  of  course, 
be  as  much  more  frequent  in  infancy  as  the  demands  of  a 
more  rapid  consumption  require,  but  there  should  be  times, 
and  a  degree  of  order  established,  as  soon  as  possible;  other¬ 
wise  the  stuffing  method  will  go  on  into  childhood,  and  boy¬ 
hood,  and  by  that  time  the  bodily  habit  is  in  total  disorder, 


242 


PHYSICAL  NURTURE, 

carrying  the  tempers  and  general  character  with  it.  The 
breakfast  before  breakfast,  and  the  dinner  before  dinner, 
and  the  casual  snatching  and  feeding  at  all  hours  between, 
bring  the  child  to  the  table  with  a  scowl  upon  his  face,  and 
a  nervous,  morbid  look  of  disgust,  which  declare,  as  plainly 
as  possible,  that  there  is  nothing  good  enough  prepared  for 
him;  and,  quite  as  plainly,  that  he  is  a  poor,  misgoverned 
and  spoiled  child.  He  is  overtaken  by  all  the  woes  of  sen¬ 
suality,  and  yet  has  gotten  almost  none  of  its  pleasures; 
for  he  is  always  kept,  by  his  irregular,  ungoverned  feeding, 
so  close  up  to  the  line  of  possible  appetite,  that  peevishness 
and  ill-nature  are  the  spice  of  all  his  sensations,  and  his 
body  and  soul  are  about  equally  distempered  by  the  mor¬ 
bid  irritations  and  dyspeptic  woes  that  have  come  upon 
them.  What  a  preparation  is  this  for  the  calm,  sweet, 
thoughtful  motives  of  religion,  and  the  gentle  whispers  of 
God’s  truth  in  the  heart ! 

It  should  also  be  understood  in  the  religious  training  of 
children,  how  great  mischiefs  are  likely  to  follow,  when 
much  is  made  of  the  pleasures  of  the  table.  If  the  feeding 
is  the  great  circumstance  of  the  house  and  the  day,  if  the 
discourse  turns  always  on  the  peculiar  relish  of  this,  or  the 
wonderful  delicacy  of  that,  and  the  main  stress  of  life  in 
general  on  the  bliss  of  good  living,  it  will  not  much  avail, 
that  the  parents  have  a  certain  wish  to  see  their  children 
grow  up  in  religion.  A  stranger  falling  into  such  a  family, 
will  be  amazed  to  find  how  pervasive  and  spirit-like  this 
most  unethereal,  undiffusive  kind  of  bliss  may  be.  The 
smack  of  appetite  will  seem  to  be  in  the  atmosphere  of  the 
house.  It  will  be  as  if  the  gastric  nerve  of  the  family  were 
become  the  whole  brain.  A  certain  coarseness  of  feeling 
and  character  will  appear  in  every  thing.  The  grain  will  be 


TO  BE  A  MEANS  OF  GRACE 


243 


coarse,  both  of  body  and  soul;  and  the  general  expression 
of  manners,  faces,  and  voices,  will  be  such  as  indicates  a 
reduction  of  grade,  in  all  the  finer  impulses  of  society,  in¬ 
telligence,  and  duty.  The  family  affections  themselves  will 
seem  to  have  fallen  back,  to  make  room  for  the  valued  bliss 
of  the  appetites.  No  matter  how  much  of  prayer  and  regu¬ 
lar  church-going  there  may  be  in  such  a  family,  the  child 
brought  up  in  it  has  a  most  sad  fortune  to  bear,  in  the  savor¬ 
ing  habit  to  which  it  trains  him.  Nor  is  it  only  in  some 
high  conditioned  family,  where  wealth  is  steeping  itself  in 
luxury,  that  this  kind  of  woe  is  put  upon  children.  It  quite 
as  often  begins  at  the  coarse,  low  table  of  the  sensually 
minded  poor.  These  are  even  most  likely  of  all  to  live,  and 
teach  their  children  to  live,  for  what  they  may  eat.  The 
humble  Christian  mother,  it  may  be,  having  no  luxuries 
of  dress  and  show  to  give  her  children,  makes  it  a  great 
point  to  have  them  enjoy  the  feeding  of  their  bodies;  and 
so,  instead  of  fining  them  to  a  nobler  pleasure  in  the  virtues 
of  frugality,  order,  gentle  society,  and  good  action,  she 
graduates  them  into  just  that  coarsest  sensuality  which  is 
the  bane  of  all  character,  for  this  life  and  the  next. 

It  is  a  much  greater  point,  in  this  connection,  than  is  com¬ 
monly  supposed,  that  children  should  be  trained  to  good 
manners  in  their  eating.  Good  manners  are  a  kind  of  self- 
government  which  operates  continually  to  keep  the  body 
under,  and  hold  the  sensualizing  tendency  of  food  in  check. 
Animals  have  no  manners  and  the  higher  gift  of  manners 
is  allowed  to  man,  to  keep  him  from  the  coarseness  and  low¬ 
ness  to  which  his  animal  nature  would  otherwise  run.  In 
this  view,  good  manners  are  even  a  sort  of  first-stage  religion, 
for  the  reduction  of  the  body.  If  the  child  is  practiced 
carefully,  at  his  food,  in  deferring  to  superiors  and  seniors; 


244 


PHYSICAL  NURTURE, 


in  the  restraint  of  haste,  or  greediness;  in  the  proprieties 
of  positions,  and  the  handsome  uses  of  tools;  in  the  limita¬ 
tion  of  his  feeding  by  his  wants,  and  a  good-natured  sub¬ 
mission  to  restriction  when  restriction  is  needed  for  his 
good;  he  will  not  grow  sensual  in  that  manner,  but  his  mind 
will  be  all  the  while  getting  sovereignty  over  the  body. 
Good  breeding  and  civility  are,  in  this  view,  indispensable. 
The  Christian  training  of  children,  without  any  care  of  their 
manners  in  these  respects,  is  only  the  training,  in  fact,  of 
barbarians  and  savages,  in  the  houses  of  such  as  call  them¬ 
selves  Christian  people. 

There  is  great  importance  also,  for  a  similar  reason,  in 
the  observance  of  a  Christian  blessing,  or  giving  of  thanks 
at  the  table.  The  mere  form,  taken  only  as  a  constantly 
recurring  acknowledgment  of  God  and  the  obligations  of 
gratitude,  laid  on  the  family  by  his  goodness,  is  a  matter  of 
inestimable  value.  The  bare  recollection  of  a  higher  nature 
and  the  higher  meaning  of  life,  coupled  uniformly  thus 
with  the  order  of  the  table,  qualifies  the  lower  sensations, 
and  raises  them  to  a  kind  of  spiritual  dignity.  It  is  even  a 
pitiful  figure,  in  this  view,  which  the  great  Franklin  makes, 
when,  with  so  little  show  of  philosophy,  saying  nothing  of 
Christian  reverence,  he  recites,  in  a  manner  of  evident ' 
pleasure,  the  wit  of  his  boyhood:  asking  his  father,  at  the 
packing  of  his  barrel  of  meat,  why  he  did  not  say  grace  over 
the  whole  barrel  at  once,  and  save  the  necessity  of  so  many 
repetitions?  These  repetitions  are  the  very  things  most 
wanted.  They  compose  the  liturgy  of  the  table,  and  have 
their  value,  not  in  the  quantities  of  meat  they  season,  but 
in  the  seasoning  of  the  partakers  themselves,  by  so  many 
reiterations  of  their,  at  least,  formal  homage  and  gratitude. 
At  the  same  time  there  should  be  much  care  taken  to  make 


TO  BE  A  MEANS  OF  GRACE 


245 


these  blessings  of  the  table  more  than  a  form;  to  connect 
a  real  and  felt  meaning  with  them,  and  make  them  the  ex¬ 
pression  of  a  living  and  true  gratitude  in  all  present.  Chil¬ 
dren  can  be  so  trained,  in  this  matter,  as  even  to  miss  the 
flavor  of  their  meat,  when  no  blessing  is  upon  it.  What 
then  can  be  expected,  in  a  Christian  family,  wThen  the  chil¬ 
dren  are  put  to  their  food  with  no  such  recognition  of  God, 
and  have  their  faces  turned  downward  always  upon  it,  even 
as  if  they  were  animals?  Doubtless  the  blessing  may,  too 
often,  be  a  mere  form,  but  it  is  a  form  which,  apart  from  any 
conscious  glow  of  sentiment,  no  Christian  family  can  afford 
to  lose. 

Much  also  may  be  done  for  children,  by  associating  sub¬ 
jects,  and  sentiments,  and  plans  of  practical  charity,  wTith 
the  blessings  and  pleasures  of  the  table.  To  do  this  requires 
no  very  ingenious  methods,  or  deeply  studied  plans.  It  will 
be  done  almost,  of  course,  if  the  parents  themselves  are,  at 
all,  given  to  such  things;  for,  in  such  a  case,  they  can  hardly 
fail  to  speak  of  the  children  of  the  poor,  and  the  bitter  pains 
and  pinings  of  their  unsatisfied  hunger.  If  the  appetites 
of  children  are  eager  and  easily  turned  to  a  habit  of  sensu¬ 
ality,  their  sympathies  also  are  quick,  and  their  compassions 
wonderfully  tender.  Let  these  last  be  called  into  play, 
and  kept  in  play,  as  they  may  be  always  by  a  few  simple 
words  of  charity,  and  proposed  acts  of  bounty  to  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  want,  and  the  former,  the  appetites,  will  become 
incentives  even  habitually,  to  what  is  noblest  in  feeding  and 
remotest  from  a  properly  sensual  character.  The  body 
itself  becomes  the  interpreter,  in  such  a  case,  of  want,  and 
offers  itself  dutifully  to  mercy,  to  be  used  as  its  organ. 

Such  are  a  few  of  the  suggestions  that  require  to  be  noted 
and  observed,  in  the  right  feeding  of  children.  Others  will 


246 


PHYSICAL  NURTURE, 


occur  to  you  daily,  as  your  work  goes  on,  if  only  you  are 
really  awake  to  the  transcendent  importance  of  the  sub¬ 
ject.  Let  it  never  be  assumed,  for  one  moment,  that  you 
are  now  doing  nothing  and  can  be  doing  nothing  for  your 
children,  because  you  are  only  feeding  their  bodies.  A  very 
considerable  part  of  your  parental  charge  lies  just  here;  in 
giving  your  children  such  a  nurture  in  the  body,  as  makes 
them  superior  to  the  body;  subordinates  the  passions,  and 
evens  the  tempers  of  the  body;  prepares  them  to  a  state  of 
robust  and  massive  healthiness;  gives  them  clearer  heads, 
and  nobler  sentiments  of  truth;  preparing  them,  in  that 
manner,  to  be  good  scholars,  to  have  their  affectional  na¬ 
ture  opened  wide  by  a  general  love,  to  have  their  percep¬ 
tive  feeling  quickened  to  all  highest  forms  of  beauty  and 
good,  and  so  to  have  them  ready,  more  and  more  ready,  for 
a  state  of  eternally  unsealed  affinity  with  God.  There  is 
not  any  thing,  in  the  highest  ranges  of  their  spiritual  and 
religious  nature,  that  will  not  be  somehow  affected,  and 
powerfully  too,  by  the  feeding  of  their  bodies.  Even  their 
conscience  itself,  which  is  God’s  own  organ  or  throne,  so  to 
speak,  in  their  nature — the  most  self-asserting  and,  as  we 
should  say,  most  indestructible  of  all  their  powers — can  be 
made  to  ring  out  clear  and  true,  like  a  bell  in  the  night,  or 
it  can  be  stifled  and  choked,  so  as  scarcely  to  be  audible — 
all  by  the  mere  feeding  of  the  body.  So  there  is  a  feeding 
that  makes  a  manly  life,  and  a  feeding  that  makes  a  mean, 
weak,  ignoble  life.  So  there  is  a  feeding  which  makes  room 
for  God,  and  a  feeding  that  leaves  him  no  vacant  space  or 
chamber  to  fill.  The  question  here  is  not,  exactly,  what 
converting  power  is  exerted  or  not  exerted,  what  Christian 
truth  impressed  or  not  impressed,  but  it  is  what  kind  of 
metal,  in  fact,  the  future  man  is  to  be  made  of;  for  all  that 


TO  BE  A  MEANS  OF  GRACE 


247 


is  entered,  thus  early,  into  the  feeding  habit  of  the  body,  is 
about  as  really  composite  and  substantial  as  that  which  is 
prepared  in  the  inborn  properties  of  nature  itself.  This 
feeding  nurture,  if  we  take  the  real  sense  of  it,  is  to  grow  in 
good  or  bad  affinities  and  possibilities;  to  grow  a  body 
under  the  soul,  or  over  it;  to  form  a  good  or  bad  staple,  in 
the  substance  of  the  man,  which  is  going  to  remain  un¬ 
changed,  by  all  his  future  changes  and  transformations, 
about  as  certainly  as  his  face,  or  gait,  and  in  much  the  same 
degree. 

To  complete  this  view  of  the  bodily  nurture  and  keeping, 
something  ought  also  to  be  said  of  personal  neatness,  and 
also  of  dress,  in  both  of  which  the  bodily  habit  is  concerned, 
though  in  a  more  external  and  less  decisive  way. 

As  regards  the  matter  of  personal  neatness,  I  will  only 
suggest  the  very  close  relationship  of  association  between 
it,  as  a  habit,  and  the  spiritual  habit  of  the  soul  in  religion. 
In  this  holy  endeavor  of  grace,  or  religion,  the  soul  aspires 
to  be  clean.  Conscious  of  great  defilement  in  sin,  it  hears 
a  call  to  come  and  be  made  white,  even  as  the  snow.  It 
begins  with  the  prayer — “Create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  O 
God,”  and  the  longing  after  purity  and  a  clean  conscious¬ 
ness  before  Him,  draws  it  on.  To  be  washed,  purified,  made 
clean — under  these,  and  such  like  terms  of  aspiration,  it  is 
exercised,  in  all  the  keeping  of  the  life,  that  it  may  incur  no 
spot  or  stain,  and  be  effectually  purged  from  all  most  sub¬ 
tle  defilements.  In  this  view,  bodily  neatness,  or  the 
cleanly  keeping  of  the  person,  is  a  kind  of  outward  religion 
going  before,  preparing  tastes,  images,  sensibilities,  habits 
that  make  the  soul  more  akin  to  religion,  readier  to  feel  the 
obligation,  and  labor  in  the  purifying  endeavor.  And,  in 


248 


PHYSICAL  NURTURE, 


this  view,  the  mother,  the  poor  Christian  mother,  who  has 
nothing  of  this  world’s  good,  as  we  commonly  speak,  to  put 
upon  her  children,  has  yet  one  of  the  best  goods  of  all,  which 
she  may,  without  fail,  bestow,  viz.:  a  cleanly  habit.  She 
gives  them  a  great  mark  of  honor,  and  sets  them  in  a  way 
of  great  hope  and  preferment,  as  regards  all  highest  charac¬ 
ter,  when  she  trains  them  to  a  felt  necessity  of  neatness  and 
order.  On  the  other  hand,  if  she  allows  them  to  grow  up 
in  a  filthy  and  loose  habit,  crowding  all  bounty  upon  them, 
and  breathing  out  her  soul  beside,  in  prayer  and  fasting  on 
their  account,  it  will  be  wonderful  if  they  have  much  sensi¬ 
bility  to  the  defilements  of  the  soul,  or  come  to  God  in  any 
determinate  longings  after  purity.  Nay,  it  will  be  wonder¬ 
ful  if  the  dirt  upon  their  persons  and  clothing  is  not  found 
upon  their  conscience  also,  and  if  they  do  not  go  on  to  live 
the  disorder  in  their  souls,  which  has  been  the  untidy  ele¬ 
ment  of  their  bodies. 

There  is  also  this  very  peculiar  excellence  in  neatness, 
that  it  is  not  ambitious,  not  for  show,  but  more  for  what 
it  is  in  itself — an  honest  kind  of  benefit,  or  good,  that  brings 
along  no  bad  or  false  motive  with  it.  Hence  there  is  no 
temptation  in  the  practice.  Honor  and  ornament  and  grace 
of  poverty,  as  it  often  is,  it  is  only  the  more  truly  such,  that 
it  simply  fulfills  and  perpetuates  a  fixed  necessity,  looking 
after  no  reward,  save  what  it  is  to  itself.  Formed  to  such  a 
habit,  and  scarcely  conscious  of  it,  the  children  grow  into  a 
kind  of  pure  simplicity  in  good,  which  is  itself  one  of  the 
finest  symbols  and  surest  outward  preparations  of  the  re¬ 
ligious  life  and  character. 

The  subject  of  dress,  taken  as  related  to  religious  charac¬ 
ter  in  youth,  is  one  of  transcendent  importance,  but  as  I 
am  treating  mostly  of  what  is  to  be  done  for  children,  in  the 


TO  BE  A  MEANS  OF  GRACE 


249 


few  first  years  of  their  training,  I  shall  dismiss  the  subject 
with  only  a  few  suggestions,  such  as  my  particular  purpose 
appears  to  require. 

There  is  this  very  singular  and  striking  contrast  between 
animals  and  men,  that  they  are  born  dressed,  and  these  to 
be  dressed;  while  yet  the  fact  of  a  dress  is  equally  neces¬ 
sary  to  both.  The  object  of  the  distinction  appears  to  be, 
to  allow,  in  the  latter  case,  a  certain  liberty  of  form  and  ap¬ 
pearance,  even  as  there  is  given  a  grand  central  liberty  of 
life  and  character  within.  It  allows  us  to  choose  what  shall 
be  added  to  finish  out  our  form,  or  appearing;  and  it  is  a 
singular  fact,  in  this  connection,  that  we  always  take  our 
dress  to  be,  in  some  sense,  ourselves;  just  as  if  it  grew  out 
of  our  bodily  substance;  so  that  we  feel  ourselves  ordinarily 
limited  and  hampered,  in  behavior  and  manners,  in  thought 
and  feeling,  and  fancy,  by  the  dress  we  have  on.  The  con¬ 
sciousness  of  being  badly,  or  half  absurdly  dressed,  makes  us 
awkward.  We  can  not  sit  down  to  write  in  a  sordid  and 
tattered  dress — thought  can  not  sufficiently  respect  itself, 
the  feeling  nature  and  the  taste  and  the  fancy  can  not  be 
in  trim  in  such  a  guise.  As  a  king  would  not  like  to  appear 
in  the  dress  of  a  convict,  so  they  ask  a  dress  that  more 
respects  their  quality.  There  is  a  fearfully  powerful  reac¬ 
tion,  thus,  in  dress,  upon  what  is  inmost  and  deepest  in  char¬ 
acter.  And  so  much  is  there  in  this  fact,  that  every  Chris¬ 
tian  parent  should  be  fully  alive  to  it,  even  from  the  first; 
understanding  that  the  child  is  going  to  enlarge  his  con¬ 
sciousness,  so  as,  in  a  sense,  to  take  in  his  dress  and  be  con¬ 
figured  to  it — inverting  the  common  order  of  speech  on  the 
subject,  when  we  talk  of  cutting  the  dress  to  the  child;  for 
it  is  equally  true,  in  a  different  sense,  that  the  child  will  be 
cut  to  his  dress. 


250 


PHYSICAL  NURTURE, 


Hence  the  dreadful  mischief  done  to  a  child,  by  what 
may  be  called  the  dolling  of  it;  that  is,  by  dressing,  or  over¬ 
dressing  it,  just  to  please,  or  amuse,  or,  what  is  really  more 
true,  to  tickle  a  certain  weak  and  foolish  pride  in  the  par¬ 
ents.  What  meantime  has  become  of  that  most  tender 
and  godly  concern,  which  belongs  to  the  Christian  charge 
put  upon  them,  in  the  gift  of  this  same  child?  It  takes 
whole  months,  how  often,  to  get  the  child’s  looks  and  dress 
into  such  trim  that  it  can  be  offered  by  them  for  baptism, 
making  the  desired  impression;  in  which  it  turns  out  that 
the  chief  object  to  them,  of  baptism,  is  the  exhibition  of 
the  doll  they  have  been  dressing;  not  to  get  the  seal  and 
sacrament  of  God’s  mercy  upon  it,  as  a  creature  in  the 
heritage  of  their  own  corrupted  life. 

And  then,  afterwards,  the  dressing  goes  on  still,  in  faith¬ 
ful  keeping  with  its  sad  beginning.  In  a  few  days  this  same 
child  appears,  marching  the  streets,  in  the  figure  of  a  little 
gentleman  with  a  cane;  or  if  it  be  a  daughter,  hung  with 
necklaces  and  chains,  and  set  off  with  as  much  of  finery  as 
can  well  be  supported — visibly  conscious,  in  either  case,  of 
the  fine  show  being  made;  even  as  the  foolish  parents,  it 
might  fitly  despise,  were  just  now  admiring  their  doll  at 
home,  and  praising  to  itself  the  pretty  figure  it  made ! 

Is  this  now  the  dress  of  a  Christian  child?  is  this  such  a 
dress  as  a  properly  Christian  nurture  prescribes?  What 
is  this  child  training  for,  but  simply  to  be  a  fop,  or  fashion- 
ist,  or  fool  ?  This  taste  for  show,  and  finery,  and  flattery — 
what  is  it  but  the  beginning  of  all  irreligion?  and  what  will 
the  after  life  be,  but  the  continuance  of  this  beginning  ? 

Just  contrary  to  this,  whoever  will  bring  up  a  child  for 
God,  must  put  him,  at  the  very  first,  into  God’s  modes  and 
measures.  The  real  question  of  dress,  is  what  shall  be  put 


TO  BE  A  MEANS  OF  GRACE 


251 


upon  this  child,  to  make  it  feel  most  like  a  Christian — what 
will  give  him  the  finest  feeling  with  the  least  of  show  and 
vanity?  What  will  leave  him  in  a  state  most  natural,  and 
simple,  and  farthest  from  affectation?  What  will  be  most 
like  to  the  putting  on  of  Christ  himself,  his  righteousness, 
beauty,  truth,  meekness,  and  dignity?  Dress  your  child 
for  Christ,  if  you  will  have  him  a  Christian;  bring  every 
thing,  in  the  training,  even  of  his  body,  to  this  one  final  aim, 
and  it  will  be  strange,  if  the  Christian  body  you  give  him 
does  not  contain  a  Christian  soul. 


IV 


THE  TREATMENT  THAT  DISCOURAGES  PIETY 

“Fathers  provoke  not  yonr  children  to  anger,  lest  they  be  discour¬ 
aged.” — Colossians  iii.  21. 

Discouraged,  the  apostle  means,  in  good;  that  is,  in 
worthy  purposes  and  pious  endeavors.  Nothing  will  more 
certainly  put  a  child  in  a  discouraged  feeling,  than  to  be 
angered  by  a  parent’s  ill-nature  and  abuse.  The  anger  is, 
most  certainly,  far  enough  from  being  itself  a  state  of  dis¬ 
couragement;  but  anger  is  a  passion  that  can  not  hold  long 
and  the  after  state  into  which  it  subsides,  in  the  case  of  in¬ 
feriors  and  dependants,  is  commonly  a  giving  up  to  the  bad, 
a  passionless  and  low  desperation,  that  is  equivalent  to  a 
general  surrender  of  all  high  aims  and  aspirations. 

In  this  view,  it  would  not  be  altogether  amiss,  and  cer¬ 
tainly  no  improper  use  of  the  apostle’s  words,  if  I  were  to 
offer  under  them  a  lecture  to  parents,  on  the  provoking 
ways  of  treatment  and  government.  But  I  have  chosen 
them  for  a  different  purpose,  and  one  that  is  more  inclusive, 
viz.:  to  introduce  and  give  sanction  to  a  discourse  on — 

The  discouragement  of  piety  in  children;  the  ways  in  which 
it  is  discouraged,  and  the  great  care  necessary  to  avoid  a  mis¬ 
take  so  injurious . 

I  speak  here,  of  course,  to  parents  who  really  desire  the 
spiritual  welfare  of  their  children.  Nothing  is  farther  off 
from  their  design,  than  to  push  their  children  away  from 
Christ  into  a  state  of  alienated  and  discouraged  feeling. 

252 


THE  TREATMENT  THAT  DISCOURAGES  PIETY  253 


And  yet  they  do  it,  very  often,  by  faults  of  management 
not  suspected,  and  never  afterwards  discovered;  unless, 
possibly,  after  the  injury  is  done,  when  it  can  no  longer  be 
repaired. 

It  becomes,  in  this  view,  a  very  serious  and  practically 
important  question,  how,  or  by  what  methods,  Christian 
parents,  unawares  to  themselves  and  contrary  to  their  really 
good  intentions,  discourage  piety  in  their  children?  Let 
us  see  if  we  can  partially  answer  the  question. 

We  begin,  then,  where  the  apostle  begins  with  his  remon¬ 
strance.  His  language  is  particularly  addressed  to  fathers; 
for  he  seems  to  have  in  view  the  case  of  children,  who  are 
in  the  more  advanced  stages  of  childhood,  or  in  what  we  call 
the  period  of  youth.  And  yet  the  language  is  equally  ap¬ 
plicable  to  the  case  of  mothers  and  very  little  children.  It 
might  not  be  wholly  amiss  for  a  half-grown  lad,  or  youth, 
who  has  violated  his  father's  feelings,  by  some  really  base 
act  of  crime,  or  disobedience,  to  see,  by  the  smoke  of  his 
indignant  passion,  how  deeply  his  right  sensibility  is  re¬ 
volted.  That  will  never  discourage  him  in  any  thing  good. 
It  might  even  rouse  his  moral  nature,  when  nothing  less 
violent  would  suffice.  The  father  will  really  discourage 
good  in  his  son,  only  when  he  stings  him  with  a  sense  of  in¬ 
justice,  and  keeps  him  in  a  wounded  feeling,  by  his  own  un¬ 
governed,  groundless  passion.  But  in  the  case  of  the  mother, 
dealing  with  her  very  young  child,  there  is  no  place  even  for 
so  much  as  a  feeling  of  impatience.  No  crisis  occurs  that 
she  has  any  right  to  carry  by  a  storm.  And  yet  there  are 
many  mothers  who  breed  a  climate  of  storms  for  their  chil¬ 
dren  to  grow  up  in,  even  from  the  first.  They  make  an  ele¬ 
ment  of  pettishness  and  passion,  and  call  it  Christian  nur¬ 
ture  to  maintain  a  kind  of  quarrel  with  their  children,  from 


254 


THE  TREATMENT 


infancy  upward.  We  do  not  commonly  conceive  that  the 
children  are  discouraged,  thus,  in  the  matter  of  piety;  but 
the  real  fact  is,  that  their  better,  higher  nature,  quite  worn 
down  by  such  treatment,  sinks  at  last  into  a  kind  of  atrophy, 
which  is  the  essence  of  all  discouragement.  By  the  time 
they  are  passed  through  this  first  chapter  of  torment,  their 
faces  even  have  begun  to  take  on  a  forlorn  expression,  as  if 
their  well-abused  feeling  had  been  quite  choked  off  from 
every  thing  hopeful  or  good.  Nothing  is  more  beautiful 
than  the  God-ward  affinities,  and  glad  impulses  to  good, 
in  a  childish  soul;  but  when  it  has  once  been  kiln-dried  in 
this  hot  furnace  of  motherly  or  fatherly  passion,  there  is  no 
more  any  putting  forth  after  the  divine.  A  kind  of  indiffer¬ 
ence,  or  sullen  prejudice,  sets  off  the  heart  from  God,  and 
the  gentle  affinities  close  up  under  the  stupor  of  so  great 
early  abuse  and  discouragement. 

Children  are  also  discouraged  and  hardened  to  good  by 
too  much  of  prohibition.  There  is  a  monotony  of  continu¬ 
ous,  ever  sounding,  prohibition,  which  is  really  awful.  It 
does  not  stop  with  ten  commandments,  like  the  word  of 
Sinai,  but  it  keeps  the  thunder  up,  from  day  to  day,  saying 
always  thou  shalt  not  do  this,  nor  this,  nor  this,  till,  in  fact, 
there  is  really  nothing  left  to  be  done.  The  whole  enjoy¬ 
ment,  use,  benefit,  of  life  is  quite  used  up  by  the  prohibi¬ 
tions.  The  child  lives  under  a  tilt-hammer  of  command¬ 
ment,  beaten  to  the  ground  as  fast  as  he  attempts  to  rise. 
All  commandments,  of  course,  in  such  a  strain  of  injunction, 
come  to  sound  very  much  alike,  and  one  appears  to  be  about 
as  important  as  another.  And  the  result  is  that,  as  they 
are  all  in  the  same  emphasis,  and  are  all  equally  annoying, 
the  child  learns  to  hate  them  all  alike,  and  puts  them  all 
away.  He  could  not  think  of  heartily  accepting  them  all, 


THAT  DISCOURAGES  PIETY 


255 


and  it  would  even  be  a  kind  of  irreverence  to  make  a  selec¬ 
tion.  Nothing  so  fatally  worries  a  child,  as  this  fault  of 
over-commandment.  The  study  should  be  rather  to  for¬ 
bid  as  few  things  as  possible,  and  then  to  soundly  enforce 
what  is  forbidden.  Such  kind  of  prohibitions  the  child  will 
even  like,  and  will  be  all  the  happier  that  he  has  something 
good  to  observe.  But  nothing  can  be  more  impotent,  in 
the  way  of  authority,  than  the  din  of  a  continual  prohibi¬ 
tion.  Even  the  commandments  of  God  will,  in  such  a  case, 
be  robbed  of  all  just  authority,  by  the  custom  of  a  general 
weariness  and  distaste;  in  which  all  highest  mandates  are 
leveled  to  equality  with  the  pettiest  and  most  useless  re¬ 
straints. 

Again,  it  is  a  great  discouragement  to  piety  in  children, 
when  they  are  governed  in  a  hard,  unfeeling  way,  or  in  a 
manner  of  force  and  overbearing  absolutism.  Any  thing 
which  puts  the  child  aloof  from  the  parent  or  takes  away 
the  confidence  of  love  and  sympathy  will  as  certainly  be  a 
wall  to  shut  him  away  from  God.  If  his  Christian  father 
is  felt  only  as  a  tyrant,  he  will  seem  to  have  a  tyrant  in 
God’s  name  to  bear;  and  that  will  be  enough  to  create  a 
sullen  prejudice  against  all  sacred  things.  Nor  is  the  case 
at  all  better  when  the  child  is  cowed  under  fear  of  such  a 
parent,  and  reduced  to  a  feeling  of  dread  or  abject  submis¬ 
sion.  There  is  a  beautiful  courage  in  children  as  respects 
approach  to  God,  when  God  is  not  presented  as  a  bugbear; 
and  this  natural  state  of  courage,  is  just  that  which  makes 
the  time  of  childhood  so  ingenuously  open  to  religion.  But 
if  their  courage,  even  toward  their  father,  is  already  broken 
down  into  fear  and  servile  submission,  they  will  only  think 
of  God  with  as  much  greater  fear,  and  shrink  from  all  the 
claims  of  piety  with  a  kind  of  abject  recoil,  as  from  a  thing 


256 


THE  TREATMENT 


forbidden.  No  gentleness  even  of  Christ  will  suffice,  in 
such  a  case,  to  win,  or  reassure  the  broken  courage  of  the 
soul.  I  recall  a  family  in  which  the  father,  known  as  a  man 
of  condition  and  of  no  little  repute  for  his  Christian  good 
works,  brought  up  a  large  family  of  boys  to  be  ruled  at  a 
distance.  He  addressed  them  in  a  kind  of  imperious,  un¬ 
feeling  way;  not  with  any  violence  of  manner,  but  with  a 
stern-faced  grin  that  seemed  to  say,  “  it  is  well  that  you  fear 
me.”  And  fear  him  they  most  certainly  did — fear  was  the 
element  in  which  they  grew.  And  the  result  was  that  hav¬ 
ing  no  self-respect,  and  living  under  a  law  of  mere  suppres¬ 
sion,  they  fell  into  base  immoralities  from  their  childhood, 
and  were  never  afterwards  known,  even  one  of  them,  to  have 
so  much  as  a  thought  of  piety. 

Another  and  even  more  common  way  of  discouraging 
children  in  matters  of  piety  is  by  an  over-exacting  manner, 
or  by  an  extreme  difficulty  of  being  pleased.  Children  love 
approbation,  and  are  specially  disappointed,  when  they  fail 
of  it  in  their  meritorious  endeavors.  Their  chagrin  is  never 
more  complete,  in  fact,  than  when,  having  set  themselves 
to  any  purpose  of  well-doing,  they  are  still  repulsed  by  a 
manner  of  fault-finding  at  the  end,  and  blamed  on  account 
of  some  trivial  defect  which  they  did  not  know,  and  would 
really  have  tried  to  avoid.  Some  parents  appear  to  think 
it  a  matter  of  true  faithfulness,  that  they  be  not  too  easily 
pleased,  lest  their  children  should  take  up  loose  impres¬ 
sions  of  the  strictness  of  duty.  They  do  not  consider  how 
they  would  fare  themselves,  if  God  were  to  make  a  point 
of  treating  them  in  the  same  manner.  His  manner  with 
them  is  exactly  opposite.  He  perceives  that  he  will  only 
repel  them,  by  making  it  a  matter  of  difficulty  to  please  him, 
and  that  he  could  never  draw  them  on,  if  he  did  not  yield 


THAT  DISCOURAGES  PIETY 


257 


them  his  smile  under  great  faults  and  shortcomings,  and 
did  not  give  them  the  testimony  that  they  please  him,  when 
they  are  a  great  way  off  from  his  own  scale  of  perfection. 
In  all  which  we  may  readily  see  how  great  discouragement 
is  put  upon  children,  in  all  their  good  attempts,  when  their 
parents  wall  not  allow  themselves  to  be  pleased  with  any 
thing  they  do.  Possibly  they  are  withheld  by  scruples  of 
orthodoxy.  If  so,  the  mischief  is  only  the  greater.  What 
can  win  a  child  to  the  attempt  to  please  God,  when  his  par¬ 
ents  dare  not  suffer  so  much  as  a  thought  of  the  possibility 
in  him,  and,  for  the  same  reason,  dare  not  so  much  as  ap¬ 
prove  him  themselves.  Such  kind  of  orthodoxy  can  not  be 
too  soon  forsaken,  or  too  earnestly  repented  of. 

Closely  akin  to  this,  is  the  fault  of  holding  displeasure 
too  long,  and  yielding  it  with  too  great  difficulty.  It  is 
right  that  children,  doing  wrong,  should  encounter  some 
kind  of  treatment  that  indicates  displeasure.  But  the  dis¬ 
pleasure  should  not  take  the  manner  of  a  grudge,  and 
hold  on  after  the  wrong  is  visibly  felt  and  repented  of.  On 
the  contrary,  there  should  even  be  a  hastening  toward  the 
child,  in  glad  recognitions  and  cordial  greetings,  when  the 
tokens  only  of  relenting  begin  to  appear;  even  as  the  prodi¬ 
gal's  father  is  represented,  in  the  parable,  as  discovering 
him,  in  his  return,  when  he  is  yet  a  great  way  off,  and  ad¬ 
vancing  to  meet  and  embrace  him.  By  this  tender  figure 
God  is  shown  us,  and  the  holy  generosity  of  his  fatherhood 
is  represented.  We  see  that  he  is  only  the  more  ready  to  be 
pleased,  because  of  his  magnanimity;  holding  no  resent¬ 
ments,  putting  off  the  feeling  of  offense  at  the  earliest  mo¬ 
ment,  and  the  cheapest  possible  rate.  Nay,  He  will  even 
take  our  good  by  anticipation;  accepting  us  for  what  we 
ask,  before  he  can  accept  us  for  what  we  are.  Well  is  it  for 


258 


THE  TREATMENT 


those  parents  who  think  it  incumbent  on  them,  to  hold  their 
displeasure  till  the  culprit  is  sufficiently  scathed  by  it,  if  they 
do  not  hold  it  just  a  little  too  long;  turning,  thus,  even  his 
repentance  into  a  sullen  aversion,  and  setting  it  in  his  feel¬ 
ing,  that  there  is  the  same  heavy  tariff  of  displeasure  still 
to  be  paid,  when  he  would  forsake  his  sins  and  turn  himself 
to  God.  When  will  it  be  learned  that  penance  is  no  fit 
beginning  of  piety? 

And  here  let  me  speak  of  the  very  great  danger,  after  a 
time  of  discipline,  that  the  parent  may  hold  his  displeasure 
too  long;  as  he  certainly  will,  if  there  is  any  ugly  feeling, 
or  wicked,  natural  resentment  in  him.  Thus  Jean  Paul 
beautifully  says: — “A  punishment  is  scarcely  of  such  im¬ 
portance  to  a  child  as  the  succeeding  quarter  of  an  hour, 
and  the  transition  to  forgiveness.  After  the  storm,  the 
seed  finds  the  soil  warm  and  softened;  the  terror  and  hatred 
of  the  punishment  are  now  past,  which  before  resisted  and 
struggled  against  the  word,  and  gentle  instruction  finds  its 
way,  and  brings  healing  with  it,  as  honey  assuages  the  sting 
of  bees,  and  oil  the  pain  of  a  wound.  In  this  hour  we  can 
say  much,  if  we  use  the  utmost  gentleness  of  voice,  and  by 
the  manifestation  of  our  own  pain,  soothe  that  of  the  child. 
But  every  continuance  of  wintry  anger  is  poisonous.  Moth¬ 
ers  easily  fall  into  this  prolongation  of  punishment.  This 
continuance  of  anger;  this  would-be  punishment  of  pre¬ 
tending  a  diminution  of  love,  either  fails  to  be  compre¬ 
hended  by  the  child,  because  he  is  wholly  immersed  in  the 
present  and  so  misses  its  effect,  or  else  he  becomes  satisfied 
with  a  deprivation  of  the  signs  of  love,  and  learns  to  do 
without  it;  or  else  he  is  embittered  by  the  continuance  of 
punishment  for  a  sin  which  he  has  already  buried.  Through 
this  prolongation  of  harshness,  we  lose  that  beautiful  and 


THAT  DISCOURAGES  PIETY  259 

touching  transition  into  forgiveness,  which,  by  coming 
slowly  and  after  a  long  period,  only  loses  its  power.”  * 
Hasty  and  false  accusations  again  are  a  great  discour¬ 
agement  to  piety  in  children.  Their  good  feeling,  or  in¬ 
tention,  appears  to  be  rated  low  by  their  parents,  when 
they  are  put  under  the  ban  of  dishonor,  by  false  and  ground¬ 
less  imputations;  and  they  are  very  likely,  as  the  next 
thing,  to  show  that  they  are  no  better  than  they  were 
taken  to  be.  On  this  account,  a  wise  parent  will  be  re¬ 
ligiously  careful  of  all  volunteer  and  random  charges  of 
blame,  lest  he  may  discourage  fatally  all  pious  or  ingenuous 
aspirations  by  them;  for  to  batter  self-respect,  or  insult 
the  sense  of  character,  thus  gratuitously,  is  the  surest  way 
possible  to  break  every  natural  charm  of  virtue  and  religion. 
The  effect  is  scarcely  better  where  acknowledged  faults  are 
exaggerated,  and  set  off  in  colors  of  derision.  It  will  do 
for  a  parent  to  be  just,  severely  just;  for,  by  that  means, 
he  will  best  impress  the  sacred  severity  of  principle.  God 
is  just  in  all  his  charges  and  reproofs;  but  there  is  no  man¬ 
ner  of  excess  or  spirit  of  exaggeration  in  them.  And  ex¬ 
actly  this  it  is  which  makes  his  kindness  so  beautiful,  so 
inspiring  to  our  courage,  so  attractive  to  our  love.  But 
harsh  justice,  exaggerated  justice,  is  injustice.  When  a 
child,  therefore,  is  persecuted  by  railing  words,  cauterized 
by  satire,  blamed  without  reason  or  measure  for  faults  not 
easily  corrected,  the  severity  is  really  unprincipled  as  well 
as  unfriendly,  and  is  only  the  more  dreadfully  mischievous, 
that  it  takes  on  airs  of  piety,  and  bears  the  Christian  name. 
How  can  he  be  drawn  by  that  which  has  no  grace  of  allow¬ 
ance,  and  yields  no  sympathy  to  the  struggles  of  his  infirm¬ 
ity?  How  many  poor  children  are  beaten  out  of  all  their 

*  Levana,  iii.  §  65. 


260 


THE  TREATMENT 


natural  affinities  for  good,  by  just  this  kind  of  cruelty! 
They  had  parents  who,  in  fault  of  the  better  evidences  of 
love  and  patience,  thought  to  make  up  the  deficit  in  being 
at  least  severe  enough  to  be  Christian;  which,  though  it 
was  an  easy  grace  for  them — the  only  grace  at  their  com¬ 
mand — was,  alas !  fearfully  hard  on  the  subjects. 

We  bring  into  view  a  different  class  of  discouraging 
causes,  when  we  speak  of  that  anxiousness,  or  always  mis¬ 
erable  concern,  for  children,  by  which  some  parents  keep 
them  in  a  continual  torment  of  suppression.  We  have 
really  no  right  to  allow  a  properly  anxious  feeling  any 
where.  Anxiety  is  a  word  of  unbelief,  or  unreasoning 
dread.  Full  faith  in  God  puts  it  at  rest;  any  solid  convic¬ 
tion  of  necessity  and  right  is  chloroform  to  the  pain  of  it. 
And  we  have  the  less  right  to  be  anxious,  that  it  is  a  feeling 
which  destroys  the  comfort  of  others  whenever  and  where¬ 
soever  it  appears.  Only  to  be  in  a  room  with  an  anxious 
person,  though  a  stranger,  is  enough  to  make  one  positively 
unhappy;  for  the  manner,  the  nervous  unsteadiness,  and 
worry,  and  shift,  are  so  irresistibly  expressive,  that  no  effort 
of  silence,  or  suppression,  is  able  to  conceal  the  torment.  * 
To  go  a  journey  thus  with  an  anxious  person,  is  about  the 
worst  kind  of  pilgrimage.  What  then  is  the  woe  put  upon 
a  hapless  little  one  or  child,  who  is  shut  up  day  by  day 
and  year  by  year,  to  the  always  fearing  look  and  depre¬ 
cating  whine,  the  questioning,  protesting,  super-caution¬ 
ary  keeping  of  a  nervously  anxious  mother.  If  the  child 
catches  the  infection  himself,  he  will  never  come  to  any 
thing;  never  dare  any  great  purpose  that  belongs  to  a  man, 
or  a  Christian.  And  if  he  does  not  catch  it,  which  is  more 
probable,  then  he  will  pitch  himself  into  a  campaign  of  will 
and  passion  with  all  that  kind  of  control,  a  good  deal  less 


THAT  DISCOURAGES  PIETY 


261 


rational,  probably,  than  the  control  itself.  Simply  to  enter 
the  house  will  raise  a  breeze  in  his  feeling,  and  he  will  be 
worried  and  fretted,  till  he  has  somehow  made  his  escape. 
Nothing  is  more  opposite  to  the  hopeful  and  free  spirit  of 
childhood,  and  nothing  will  so  dreadfully  overcast  the  sky 
of  childhood,  as  the  sad  kind  of  weather  it  is  always  making. 
It  worries  the  child  in  every  putting  forth  and  play,  lest  he 
should  somehow  be  hurt;  takes  him  away,  or  would,  from 
every  contact  with  the  great  world’s  occasions,  that  would 
give  fit  schooling  to  his  manhood.  And  then,  since  the  child 
will  most  certainly  learn,  at  last,  how  little  reason  there  was 
in  the  eternal  distress  of  so  many  fears  and  imaginations  of 
harm,  he  is  sure  to  be  issued  finally,  in  a  feeling  of  confirmed 
disrespect,  which  is  the  end  of  all  good  influence  or  advice. 
And  then  it  will  be  so  much  the  worse,  if  the  anxiety  whose 
bagpipe  melody  has  been  the  torment  of  his  early  days, 
has  shown  itself  in  the  same  unregulated  way  in  matters  of 
religion.  Nothing  will  set  a  child  farther  off  from  religion,  or 
make  him  more  utterly  incapable  of  sympathy  with  it,  than 
to  have  had  it  put  upon  him  in  a  whining  and  misgiving 
*  way,  in  all  his  moods  and  occasions.  No !  there  must  be  a 
certain  courage  in  maternity  and  the  religion  of  it.  The 
child  must  be  wisely  trusted  to  danger,  and  shown  how  to 
conquer  it.  A  pleasure  must  be  taken  in  giving  him  a  cer¬ 
tain  range  of  adventure;  and  he  must  see  that  his  courage 
and  capacity  are  confided  in.  And  then  it  must  be  seen,  in 
the  same  way,  that  his  truth,  fidelity,  piety,  are  as  much 
expected  as  his  manhood.  In  a  certain  good  sense,  the 
mother  may  be  anxious  for  him,  burdened  in  her  prayers  in 
his  behalf,  but  she  must  take  on  hope  and  confidence  never¬ 
theless,  and  show  that  courage  in  him,  as  regards  all  good 
endeavor,  is  met  and  supported  by  courage  in  herself. 


262 


THE  TREATMENT 


Again,  it  will  be  found  that  piety  is  very  commonly  dis¬ 
couraged  in  children,  by  giving  them  tests  of  character  that 
are  inappropriate  to  their  age.  There  is  an  immense  cruelty 
put  upon  children  here,  by  parents  who  have  really  no  de¬ 
sign  but  simply  to  be  faithful.  Their  child,  for  example, 
loses  his  temper  in  some  matter  in  which  he  is  crossed;  and 
the  conclusion  is  forthwith  sprung  upon  him  that  he  has  a 
bad  heart,  and  is  certainly  no  Christian  child.  Where¬ 
upon  he  ceases  to  pray;  or,  if  he  is  put  to  it  as  a  form,  does 
it  with  an  averted  and  reluctant  feeling,  as  if  the  wrong 
were  conclusive  against  his  prayers.  It  is  only  necessary 
to  ask  how  the  father,  how  the  mother  would  themselves 
fare,  tested  by  the  same  rule?  If  irritation,  passion,  any 
loss  of  temper,  is  conclusive  against  the  little  being  who  has 
scarcely  begun  to  be  practiced  in  self-government,  how  is  it 
with  them  who  ought  by  this  time  to  be  immovably  fixed 
in  their  serenity  ?  So  if  the  child  has  played,  or  shown  some 
eagerness  for  play  on  Sunday,  has  not  the  father,  or  the 
mother,  who  indeed  has  outgrown  all  such  care  for  play, 
been  delving  still,  even  in  the  church  worship  itself,  and  at 
the  table  of  communion,  in  schemes,  and  projects,  and 
works,  that  thrust  out,  for  the  time,  even  these  most  sacred 
things  from  any  due  place  in  their  attention?  If  some¬ 
times  a  mere  child  is  carried  away  by  exuberant  life  and 
playfulness,  is  that  worse  than  to  be  cankered  by  the  love 
of  gain,  or  by  the  severe  and  sober  sins  of  a  grasping,  eager, 
worldly  manhood  ?  The  sins  of  children  are  ingenuous 
and  open,  and  on  just  that  account  are  to  be  less  severely 
judged.  The  sins  of  manhood  are  sins  of  gravity,  prudence, 
self-seeking,  always  contriving  to  wear  some  plausible  aspect 
of  sobriety  and  dignity;  but  they  are  not  any  the  more  con¬ 
sistent  with  piety  on  that  account.  We  do  not  judge  that 


THAT  DISCOURAGES  PIETY 


263 


any  one  is  of  course  without  piety,  or  is  no  Christian,  be¬ 
cause  he  has  faults,  or  failings,  or  even  because  he  is  over¬ 
taken  by  sins;  why  then  should  a  child  be  condemned,  as 
having  no  true  evidence  of  piety,  just  because  he  is  only  a 
little  less  under  the  power  of  evil  than  his  Christian  father 
and  mother?  God,  I  am  certain,  judges  children’s  faults 
in  no  such  manner,  and  therefore  it  is  never  to  be  assumed 
by  us  that  they  are  without  piety,  because  they  falter  in 
some  things.  If  they  only  falter,  seeming  still  to  love 
what  is  good,  and  struggle  ingenuously  after  it,  there  is  just 
as  good  reason  to  hope  that  their  hearts  have  been  touched 
by  the  Spirit  of  God,  as  there  is  that  the  hearts  of  older 
persons  have  been,  when  they  are  groping  always  in  the 
seventh  chapter  of  the  Romans,  having  a  mind  to  serve 
God,  but  always  failing  in  the  service.  The  child  must  be 
judged  or  tested  in  the  same  general  way  as  the  adult.  If 
he  is  wholly  perverse,  has  no  spirit  of  duty,  turns  away 
from  all  religious  things,  it  will  not  discourage  any  thing 
good  in  him  to  tell  him  that  he  is  without  piety;  but  if  he 
loves  religious  things,  wants  to  be  in  them,  tries  after  a  good 
and  obedient  life,  he  is  to  be  shown  how  tenderly  God  re¬ 
gards  him,  how  ready  he  is  to  forgive  him;  and  when  he 
stumbles  or  falls,  how  kindly  he  will  raise  him  up,  how  gra¬ 
ciously  help  him  to  stand.  Nor  does  it  make  any  differ¬ 
ence  that  no  time  is  remembered,  when  he  seemed  to  be 
brought  unto  God,  by  a  great  change  of  experience,  such  as 
adult  persons  are  often  the  subjects  of.  He  ought  not  to 
be  the  subject  of  any  such  change;  and  if  he  is  properly 
trained,  will  not  be.  As  regards  the  testing  of  his  condi¬ 
tion  or  character,  nothing  at  all  depends  on  that.  It  will 
even  be  a  good  sign  for  him  that  he  has  always  seemed  to 
love  Christ;  and  it  will  be  no  proper  evidence  to  the  con- 


264 


THE  TREATMENT 


trary,  that  he  sometimes  falters.  Children  are  very  in¬ 
genuous,  and  they  may  even  show  some  disinclination,  for 
a  time,  to  all  religious  duties,  without  creating  any  such 
evidence.  Adults  often  suffer  such  disinclination,  when 
they  do  not  allow  it  to  appear.  The  sum  of  all  I  would  say 
here  is,  let  children  be  judged  as  children,  and  let  them  not 
be  cruelly  discouraged  in  all  thoughts  of  love  to  God,  be¬ 
cause  they  falter,  as  older  people  do;  only  in  a  different 
manner. 

I  must  also  speak  of  another  and  more  general  mode  of 
discouragement,  in  what  may  be  called  the  holding  back, 
or  holding  aloof  system,  by  which  children  are  denied  an 
early  recognition  of  their  membership  in  the  church,  and 
an  admission  to  the  Lord’s  table.  I  have  spoken  of  this 
membership  already,  in  another  place,  and  shall  also  speak, 
hereafter,  of  the  supper  in  its  more  positive  uses.  What  I 
now  refer  to,  more  especially,  is  the  negatively  bad  or  dis¬ 
couraging  effect  thrown  upon  their  piety,  by  these  meth¬ 
ods  of  detention,  or  exclusion.  The  child  giving  evidence, 
however  beautiful,  of  his  piety,  is  still  kept  back  from  the 
fellowship  and  table  of  Christ,  for  the  simple  defect  of  years. 
As  if  years  were  one  of  the  Scripture  evidences  of  grace. 
Sometimes  the  difficulty  is  that  he  can  speak  of  no  experi¬ 
ence,  or  change,  such  as  we  call  conversion;  and  sometimes, 
if  he  can,  that  he  is  yet  too  young  to  be  confided  in.  And 
so  it  turns  out,  after  all  that  is  said  of  the  membership  initi¬ 
ated  in  baptism,  that  nothing  is  practically  made  of  it,  or 
allowed  to  be  made  of  it.  The  membership  it  creates  is 
only  a  disjunctive  conjunction;  words  for  a  show,  answered 
by  no  conditions  or  consequences  of  fact.  The  poor  child 
still  is  virtually  counted  or  assumed  to  be  an  alien,  required 
to  be  converted  in  just  the  same  fashion  as  all  heathens  are, 


THAT  DISCOURAGES  PIETY 


265 


and  to  show  the  fact  by  the  same  kind  of  evidences.  True, 
the  religious  experience  of  children  is  of  course  small — only 
not  as  small,  or  unreliable,  by  any  means,  as  the  experience 
commonly  is  of  an  adult  convert  only  a  few  weeks  old. 
Besides,  what  is  the  use  of  a  fold,  if  the  lambs  are  to  be 
kept  outside  till  it  is  seen  whether  they  can  stand  the 
weather  ? 

The  chilling,  desolating  effect  of  this  very  unnatural  and 
cruel  practice,  will  be  understood  without  difficulty.  No 
plan  could  be  devised  for  the  discouragement  of  piety  in 
children,  that  would  be  more  certain  of  its  object.  They 
are  only  mocked  and  tantalized  by  their  baptism  itself. 
They  are  thrust  away  and  kept  aloof  from  the  communion 
of  Christ,  for  reasons  that  make  it  impossible  for  them  to  be 
reliably  Christian.  And  so  their  courage  is  broken  down, 
and  all  their  religious  longings  are  crippled,  just  when  they 
most  want  grace  and  sympathy  to  draw  them  on. 

The  remedy  is  plain.  In  the  first  place,  there  ought  to 
be  some  exercise  or  service  in  every  church,  to  which  the 
baptized  children  may  be  called,  in  common  with  the  adult 
members,  there  to  be  recognized  in  a  begun  relationship. 
They  should  be  formally  addressed  and  prayed  with.  But 
the  chief  exercise,  in  which  they  can  as  heartily  partake  as 
any,  should  be  the  singing  of  simple  hymns  to  Christ,  such 
as  are  used  by  the  Moravian  brethren  for  this  purpose.  In 
this  manner,  too,  they  will  quite  as  much  edify,  as  be  edi¬ 
fied,  by  the  adult  brethren.  Their  childish  sympathies 
will  in  this  manner,  be  laid  hold  of  at  the  earliest  moment. 
They  will  perceive  that  so  much,  at  least,  of  worship  and 
religion  is  open  to  them  as  to  others,  and  will  begin  to  feel 
themselves  at  home  among  the  brethren. 

In  the  next  place,  there  should  be  some  arrangement. 


266 


THE  TREATMENT 


in  which  it  is  understood  that  children,  piously  disposed, 
though  not  confirmed  or  accepted  formally  as  members  on 
their  own  account,  may  be  allowed,  either  on  consultation 
with  the  pastor  or  without,  to  come  to  the  Lord’s  table  for 
the  time,  on  the  score  of  their  initial  membership  in  baptism, 
and  their  hopefully  gracious  character.  In  this  manner, 
some  confidence  will  be  shown  that  they  are  going  to  claim 
their  place,  in  full  church  relations,  as  soon  as  they  are 
better  matured  in  character  and  evidences;  and  this  kind 
of  confidence  will  have  great  power  with  them,  to  encour¬ 
age  and  support  their  struggles,  and  help  them  forward 
into  an  established  Christian  life. 

And  then,  once  more,  no  child  should  ever  be  kept  back 
from  a  complete  and  formal,  or  formally  professed,  mem¬ 
bership  in  the  body  of  Christ,  simply  because  of  his  age. 
Some  children  will  give  more  reliable  evidence  of  Christian 
character  at  seven  years  of  age  than  others  at  fourteen. 
Were  every  thing  as  it  should  be,  and  as  the  most  genuine 
ideas  of  baptism  and  Christian  nurture  suppose,  nearly  all 
the  subjects  would  be  found  in  the  church,  as  brethren  ac¬ 
cepted,  by  the  time  they  are  twelve  years  old,  and  the 
greater  part  of  them  before  they  are  ten  years  old. 

While  the  church  co-operates,  in  this  manner,  cherishing 
the  baptized  children  as  her  own,  it  is  understood,  of  course, 
that  parents  are  to  be  engaged  in  putting  forward  their 
children  and  preparing  them  to  bear  the  Christian  profes¬ 
sion.  They  are  not  to  assume  that  the  matter  of  true  pru¬ 
dence  here  is  all  on  one  side,  the  side  of  detention;  as  if 
there  were  nothing  to  be  sure  of,  but  that  their  children  do 
not  get  on  too  fast.  If  that  were  all,  it  were  the  easiest 
thing  in  the  world  to  settle  every  question,  by  the  argu¬ 
ment  of  delay;  which  negative  grace,  alas  !  is  about  the  only 


THAT  DISCOURAGES  PIETY 


267 


kind  of  function  some  parents  are  equal  to.  No,  this  grip 
of  detention  is  not  any  so  easy  and  safe  kind  of  duty.  It 
may  put  the  child  by  his  time  for  life.  It  may  fatally  dis¬ 
courage  all  his  beginnings  of  godliness,  and  may  so  far  choke 
his  growth  in  good  that  he  will  never  be  recovered. 

The  matters  which  I  have  gathered  up  in  this  discourse, 
it  is  not  to  be  denied,  my  brethren,  make  a  melancholy  pic¬ 
ture.  When  we  discover  in  how  many  ways  even  Chris¬ 
tian  parents  themselves  discourage  the  piety  of  their  chil¬ 
dren,  it  ceases  to  be  any  wonder  that  they  so  often  turn 
out  badly,  and  come  to  a  sad  figure  in  their  life.  There  are 
very  few  children  brought  up  in  Christian  families,  who  do 
not,  at  some  time,  show  a  particular  openness  and  tender¬ 
ness  to  the  calls  of  religion.  These  flowering  times  of  piety, 
ought  to  be  all  setting  times  of  fruit,  and  I  verily  believe 
that  they  would  be,  if  the  flowers  were  not  broken  off  by 
some  rough  handling,  or  discouraging  treatment.  And  it 
should  scarcely  be  any  wonder  that  so  many  children  of 
Christian  parents  come  forward  into  life,  in  a  dulled,  un¬ 
caring  mood;  as  if  their  conscience  were  under  some  paraly¬ 
sis,  or  as  if  they  had  somehow  fallen  out  of  all  sense  and  sen¬ 
timent  of  religion.  The  reason  is,  how  often,  that  all  their 
religious  affinities  have  been  battered  by  parental  discour¬ 
agement.  They  think  of  religion,  if  they  think  of  it  at  all, 
only  as  a  kind  of  forbidden  fruit;  and  since  it  has  never 
been  for  them,  why  should  it  ever  be  ? 

Here,  too,  is  the  solution  of,  alas !  how  many  cases,  where 
Christian  parents  speak,  with  great  sadness,  of  a  time  when 
this  or  that  child,  now  utterly  submerged  under  the  world, 
or  the  world’s  vices,  was  greatly  exercised  in  matters  of  re¬ 
ligion,  fond  of  prayer,  wanting  even  to  be  admitted  to 


268  THE  TREATMENT  THAT  DISCOURAGES  PIETY 


Christ’s  table.  How  many  children  have  been  discouraged, 
kept  back,  with  just  the  same  effect!  Treated  as  if  their 
piety  was  impossible,  how  could  it  become  a  fact  ?  0,  if  they 
had  been  wisely  and  skillfully  encouraged,  assisted,  led 
along,  how  different  probably  the  state  and  character  in 
which  they  would  now  be  found ! 

A  heavy  shade  is  here  thrown,  too,  upon  all  those  sorrow¬ 
ful  regrets  in  which  Christian  parents  bewail  what  they  call 
the  mystery  of  their  lot,  in  having  children  grown  up  to  a 
prayerless  and  godless  maturity.  Alas!  it  is  too  easy,  in 
most  cases,  to  account  for  this  mystery.  When  we  see  in 
how  many  ways  children  may  be  thrown  off  from  the  courses 
of  holy  obedience,  or  discouraged  in  them,  we  have  a  strong 
ground  of  presumption  that  the  mystery  deplored  by  their 
parents  is  not  as  deep  as  they  suppose.  For  myself,  when  I 
look  over  this  field  of  misuse,  misconception,  misdirection, 
seeing  in  how  many  and  subtle  ways  children  are  turned 
off  from  Christ,  when  they  might  be  and  ought  to  be  drawn 
to  his  fold,  it  is  no  longer  a  wonder  that  they  go  astray;  it 
would  only  be  a  greater  wonder  if  they  met  the  call  of  Christ 
more  faithfully,  and  stood  in  a  character  more  answerable 
to  the  privilege  he  gives  them. 


V 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 

“One  that  ruleth  well  his  own  house,  having  his  children  in  sub¬ 
jection  with  all  gravity.” — I  Timothy  iii.  4. 

To  be  a  Christian  bishop,  whether  in  a  clergy  of  one  order 
or  of  three,  is  to  be  set  in  a  high  office,  demanding  high 
qualifications.  What  may  be  taken  as  qualifications,  the 
apostle  is  here  specifying;  and  among  the  rest,  he  names 
the  character  evinced  by  maintaining  a  good  and  sound 
government  in  the  house.  “For  if  a  man  know  not  how 
to  rule  his  own  house,  how  shall  he  take  care  of  the  church 
of  God?5’  A  very  singular  test,  in  one  view,  for  a  Chris¬ 
tian  bishop;  one  that  passes  by  the  matter  of  learning  and 
eloquence,  and  church  reputation,  laying  hold,  instead,  of 
a  gift  in  which  some  very  ordinary  men,  and  not  a  few  ordi¬ 
nary  women,  excel.  And  with  good  reason;  for,  in  fact,  how 
very  much  alike,  in  the  elements  of  merit  and  success,  are 
all  that  purchase  to  themselves  a  good  degree,  in  whatever 
rank,  or  sphere — alike  in  fidelity,  order,  patience,  steadi¬ 
ness,  attention,  application  to  the  charge  that  is  given  them. 
Nay,  when  the  apostle  drops  in  thoughtfully  what  he  takes 
to  be  the  same  thing  in  effect,  as  ruling  one’s  house  well, 
vi’z.:  “the  having  his  children  in  subjection  with  all  grav¬ 
ity,”  the  words  themselves  appear  to  have  a  sound  of  char¬ 
acter  and  office  in  them,  as  if  spoken  of  a  bishop  with  his 
flock.  And  what  indeed  is  the  house  but  a  little  primary 

bishopric  under  the  father,  taking  oversight  thereof? 

269 


270 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 


Family  Government,  then,  is  the  subject  here  suggested 
for  discussion.  And  we  naturally  endeavor — 

I.  To  ascertain  what  is  the  true  conception  of  family  gov¬ 
ernment. 

Of  course  it  is  to  be  government;  about  that  there  ought 
to  be  no  hesitation.  It  is  not  to  be  a  mere  nursing,  or  dress¬ 
ing,  or  provisioning  agency;  not  to  be  an  exhorting,  advis¬ 
ing,  consulting  relationship;  not  to  be  a  lavishing  of  devo¬ 
tion,  or  parental  self-sacrifice;  but  the  radical  constitutive 
idea,  that  in  which  it  becomes  family  government,  is  that  it 
governs,  uses  authority,  maintains  law  and  rules,  by  a  bind¬ 
ing  and  loosing  power,  over  the  moral  nature  of  the  child. 
Parents,  it  would  sometimes  appear,  fall  into  a  practical 
ambiguity  here — as  if  the  governing  power  were  a  kind  of 
severity,  or  harsh  assumption;  not  perceiving  that,  by  com¬ 
mon  consent,  we  speak  of  an  ungoverned  family  as  the 
synonym  of  a  disorderly,  wretched,  and  dishonored,  if  not 
ruined,  family.  There  is  no  greater  cruelty,  in  fact,  than 
this  same  false  tenderness,  which  is  the  bane  of  so  many 
families.  There  is  a  kind  of  cruelty  indeed,  which  is  exactly 
opposite,  and  misses  the  idea  of  government  on  the  other 
side,  viz. :  that  brutish  manner  of  despotic  will  and  violence, 
which  makes  no  appeal  to  the  moral  nature  at  all,  driving 
straight  by,  upon  the  fears,  in  a  battery  of  force.  And  yet, 
whether  even  this  be  really  more  cruel  in  its  effects,  than 
the  false  tenderness  just  named,  is  a  fair  subject  of  doubt. 
The  true  idea,  that  which  makes  the  domestic  order  and 
state  so  beneficent,  is  that  it  is  to  be  a  state  of  government; 
a  state  where  love  has  authority,  and  presides  in  the  benefi¬ 
cent  order  of  law. 

But  when  we  have  reached  this  point,  that  family  gov- 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 


271 


eminent  is  to  govern,  we  shall  find  that  multitudes  of  par¬ 
ents  who  assume  the  Christian  name,  have  yet  no  practical 
sense  of  the  intensely  religious  character  of  the  house,  or 
the  domestic  and  family  state.  They  go  into  their  office 
loosely,  and  without  any  conception,  for  the  most  part,  of 
what  their  authority  means.  This,  I  will  now  undertake 
to  show,  drawing  out  especially  the  points  in  which  they 
most  commonly  seem  to  fall  below  the  real  sense  of  their 
office,  in  the  opinions  they  hold  concerning  it. 

First  of  all,  their  family  government  is  never  conceived, 
in  its  true  nature,  except  when  it  is  regarded  as  a  vicegerent 
authority,  set  up  by  God,  and  ruling  in  his  place.  Instead 
of  creating  us  outright,  God  has  seen  fit  to  give  us  existence 
under  laws  of  reproduction;  having  it  for  his  object,  in  the 
family  order  and  relationship,  to  set  us  forth,  under  a  kind 
of  experience  in  the  small,  and  in  terms  of  sense,  that  faith¬ 
fully  typify  our  wider  relationship  to  Him,  the  eternal 
Father  and  invisible  Ruler  of  the  worlds.  We  are  infants 
too,  men  and  women  in  the  small,  that  we  may  be  as  flexible 
in  our  will  as  possible.  Our  parents,  if  they  are  godly  them¬ 
selves,  as  by  the  supposition  they  will  be,  are  to  personate 
God,  in  the  double  sense  of  bearing  his  natural  and  moral 
image  before  us,  ever  close  at  hand;  and  also  in  the  right 
of  authority  with  which  they  are  clothed.  And,  that  they 
may  have  us  at  the  greatest  advantage,  it  is  given  them  to 
clothe  us,  and  feed  us,  and  bathe  us,  day  and  night,  in  the 
unsparing  and  lavish  attentions  of  their  love;  enjoying  our 
enjoyments,  and  even  their  own  sacrifices  for  us.  First, 
the  mother  has  us,  at  her  bosom,  as  a  kind  of  nursing  Provi¬ 
dence.  Perused  by  touch  and  by  the  eyes,  her  soul  of  ma¬ 
ternity,  watching  for  that  look  and  bending  ever  to  it, 
raises  the  initial  sense  of  a  divine  something  in  the  world; 


272 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 


and  when  she  begins  to  speak  her  soft  imperative,  putting 
a  little  decision  into  the  tones  of  her  love,  she  makes  the 
first  and  gentlest  possible  beginning  of  authority.  And 
then  the  stiff er  tension  of  the  masculine  word,  connected 
with  the  wider,  rougher  providence  of  a  father’s  masculine 
force,  follows  in  a  stouter  mode  of  authority,  and  the  moral 
nature  of  the  child,  configured  thereto,  answers  faithfully 
in  a  rapidly  developed  sense  of  obligation.  The  parents 
are  to  fill,  in  this  manner,  an  office  strictly  religious;  per¬ 
sonating  God  in  the  child’s  feeling  and  conscience,  and 
bending  it,  thus,  to  what,  without  any  misnomer,  we  call  a 
filial  piety.  So  that  when  the  unseen  Father  and  Lord  is 
Himself  discovered,  there  is  to  be  a  piety  made  ready  for 
him;  a  kind  of  house-religion,  that  may  widen  out  into  the 
measures  of  God’s  ideal  majesty  and  empire.  Hence  the 
injunction,  “Children  obey  your  parents  in  the  Lord.” 
They  could  not  make'a  beginning  with  ideas  of  God,  or  with 
God  as  an  unseen  Spirit;  therefore  they  had  parents  given 
them  in  the  Lord — the  Lord  to  be  in  them,  there  to  person¬ 
ate  and  finite ‘himself,  and  gather  to  such  human  mother¬ 
hood  and  fatherhood,  a  piety  transferable  to  Himself,  as 
the  knowledge  of  his  nobler,  unseen  Fatherhood  arrives. 

Again,  it  is  another  point,  very  commonly  overlooked, 
or  forgotten,  that  parental  government  is  genuine,  only  as 
it  bears  rule  for  the  same  ends  that  God  Himself  pursues, 
in  the  religious  order  of  the  world.  True  family  govern¬ 
ment  will  be  just  as  religious  as  His,  neither  more  nor  less. 
It  will  have  exactly  the  same  ends  and  no  other.  Just  here, 
accordingly,  is  the  main  root  of  mischief  and  failure  in  the 
government  of  Christian  families.  The  parents  are  not 
Christian  enough  to  think  of  bearing  rule  for  strictly  Chris¬ 
tian  ends.  They  drop  into  a  careless,  irresponsible  way, 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 


273 


and  rule  for  any  thing  that  happens  to  chime  with  their  own 
feeling  or  convenience.  They  want  their  children  to  shine, 
or  be  honorable,  or  rich,  or  brave,  or  fashionable;  so  to 
serve  themselves  in  them,  or  their  pride,  or  their  mere  nat¬ 
ural  fondness.  They  bring  in,  thus,  bad  motives  to  cor¬ 
rupt  all  government,  and  even  to  corrupt  themselves.  If 
they  have  some  care  of  piety  in  their  government,  it  is  a 
kind  of  amphibious  care,  sometimes  in  one  element  and 
sometimes  in  another.  They  are  never  truly  and  heartily 
in  God’s  ends.  And  the  result  is  that  what  they  do  in  the 
name  of  religion,  or  to  inculcate  religion,  shows  their  want  of 
appetite,  and  has  really  no  effect  but  to  make  both  God’s 
authority  and  theirs  irksome.  Nothing  answers  the  true 
purpose  here,  but  to  bring  in  all  the  noblest  ideas  of  truth, 
and  forgiveness  and  self-sacrifice,  and  assert  a  pitch  of  vir¬ 
tue  in  the  house  high  enough  to  be  inspiring.  The  govern¬ 
ment  will  then  have  a  genuine  authority  and  power,  because 
the  rule  of  God  is  in  it.  As  it  rules  for  God,  and  with 
God,  God  will  be  in  it;  otherwise  it  is  mortal  self-assertion 
only. 

Closely  related  is  the  conviction  to  be  firmly  held,  that 
family  discipline,  rightly  administered,  is  to  secure,  and 
may  secure,  a  style  of  obedience  in  the  child  that  amounts 
to  a  real  piety.  If  we  speak  of  conversion,  family  govern¬ 
ment  should  be  a  converting  ordinance,  as  truly  as  preach¬ 
ing.  For  observe  and  make  due  account  of  this  single  fact, 
that  when  a  child  is  brought  to  do  any  one  thing  from  a 
truly  right  motive,  and  in  a  genuinely  right  spirit,  there  is 
implied  in  that  kind  of  obedience,  the  acceptance  of  all  best 
and  holiest  principle.  I  do  not  mean,  of  course,  that  chil¬ 
dren  are  to  be  made  Christians  by  the  rod,  or  by  any  sum¬ 
mary  process  of  requirement.  There  is  no  such  short 


274 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 


method  of  compulsory  piety  here,  as  some  are  reported  to 
have  held,  or  put  in  exercise.  But  it  is  not  absurd  to  ex¬ 
pect  and  aim  to  realize  in  the  family  a  genuine  spirit  of 
obedience;  obedience,  that  is,  from  the  principle  that  God 
enthrones,  and  which  underlies  all  piety — just  what  the 
apostle  means,  if  I  understand  him  rightly,  by  having  chil¬ 
dren  “in  subjection  with  all  gravity/’  In  the  phrase  “all 
gravity,”  he  is  looking  at  a  kind  of  obedience  that  touches 
the  deepest  notes  of  principle  and  character.  Contrary  to 
this,  there  is  an  obedience  without  principle,  which  is  obedi¬ 
ence  with  all  levity;  that  which  is  paid  to  mere  will  and 
force;  that  which  is  another  name  for  fear;  that  which  is 
bought  by  promises  and  paid  by  indulgences;  that  which 
makes  a  time-server,  or  a  coward,  or  a  lying  pretender,  as 
the  case  may  be,  and  not  a  Christian.  This  latter — that 
which  makes  a  Christian — is  the  aim  of  all  true  government, 
and  should  never  be  out  of  sight  for  an  hour.  Let  the 
child  be  brought  to  do  right  because  it  is  right,  and  not 
because  it  is  unsafe,  or  appears  badly,  to  do  wrong.  In 
every  case  of  discipline  for  ill-nature,  wrong,  willfulness, 
disobedience,  be  it  understood,  that  the  real  point  is  carried 
never  till  the  child  is  softened  into  love  and  duty;  sorry, 
in  all  heartiness,  for  the  past,  with  a  glad  mind  set  to  the 
choice  of  doing  right  and  pleasing  God.  How  often  is  it 
true  that  in  the  successful  carrying  of  such  a  point  (which 
can  not  be  carried,  save  by  great  resources  of  love  and  gos¬ 
pel  life  in  the  parents,)  the  fact  of  a  converted  will  is  gained. 
And  one  must  be  a  dull  observer  of  children  and  their  after 
life,  who  has  not  many  times  suspected  that  just  the  ones 
who  are  said  to  be  converted  afterwards,  and  suppose  them¬ 
selves  to  be,  had  their  wills  not  seldom  bowed  to  this  in 
their  childhood,  under  the  government  of  the  house. 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 


275 


Having  so  far  indicated  what  is  the  true  idea  of 
family  government  as  a  Divine  institution,  let  us  next 
inquire — 

II.  By  what  methods  it  will  best  fulfill  its  gracious  and  be¬ 
neficent  purposes  f 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  the  vicegerent  office 
to  be  maintained,  and  the  gracious  ends  to  be  secured, 
make  it  indispensable  that  parents  should  themselves  be 
living  in  the  Spirit,  and  be  so  tempered  by  their  faithful 
walk,  as  to  have  the  Christly  character  on  them.  Nothing 
but  this  will  so  lift  their  aims,  quiet  their  passions,  steady 
their  measures  and  proceedings,  as  to  give  them  that  per¬ 
sonal  authority  which  is  requisite.  For  this  authority  of 
which  I  speak  supposes  much — so  much  of  grace  and  piety, 
that  God  is  expressed  in  the  life;  so  much  as  to  even  it  in 
all  principle,  fasten  it  in  all  moderation  of  truth  and  justice, 
gladden  it  in  heaven’s  liberty  and  peace,  and,  above  all, 
clear  it  of  sanctimony;  for  if  any  thing  will  drive  a  poor 
child  mad  with  disgust  of  religion,  it  is  to  be  tormented 
day  and  night  with  the  drawlings  and  mock  solemnities  of 
a  merely  sanctimonious  piety.  Children  love  the  realities, 
and  are  worried  by  all  shams  of  character.  If  then  parents 
can  not  be  deep  enough  in  religion  to  live  it  naturally,  and 
have  it  as  an  element  of  gladness,  clear  of  all  sanctimony, 
it  is  doubtful  whether  fjiey  might  not  better  be  even  farther 
off  from  the  semblance  of  it  than  they  pretend  to  be.  Of 
this  one  thing  they  may  be  sure,  that  they  get  no  addition 
of  personal  authority  by  any  thing  put  on;  or  by  any  pre¬ 
scribed  longitudes  of  expression.  The  most  profoundly 
real  thing  in  the  world  is  this  matter  of  personal  authority. 
Jesus  had  it  as  no  other  ever  had,  because  he  had  most  of 


276 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 


reality  and  divine  truth  in  his  character;  we  shall  have  the 
same,  only  as  we  have  the  same  steady  affinities  in  us,  and 
the  same  Spirit  without  measure  upon  us. 

There  is  also  another  precondition  of  authority  in  parents 
closely  related  to  this;  I  mean  that  they  be  so  far  entered 
into  the  Christian  order  of  marriage,  as  to  fulfill  gracefully 
what  belongs  to  the  relation  in  which  they  are  set,  and  show 
them  to  the  children  as  doing  fit  honor  to  each  other.  By 
a  defect  just  here,  all  authority  in  the  house  is  blasted. 
Thus  Dr.  Tiersch,  in  his  excellent  little  treatise  on  the  Chris¬ 
tian  Family  Life,  says: — “A  wife  can  not  weaken  the  au¬ 
thority  of  the  father  without  undermining  her  own,  for  her 
authority  rests  upon  his,  and  if  that  of  the  mother  is  sub¬ 
ordinated  to  that  of  the  father,  yet  it  is  but  one  authority, 
which  can  not  be  weakened  in  either  of  the  two  who  bear  it, 
without  injury  to  both.  The  mother,  therefore,  must  con¬ 
sider  it  a  matter  of  family  decorum  which  is  not  to  be  broken, 
never  even  in  little  matters  to  contradict  the  father  in  the 
presence  of  the  children,  except  with  the  reservation  of  a 
modest  admission  of  his  right  of  decision,  and  that  in  cases 
which  admit  of  no  delay.  But  just  as  much  is  it  the  duty 
of  the  husband  to  leave  the  authority  of  his  wife  unassailed 
in  the  presence  of  other  members  of  the  household;  and 
when  he  is  obliged  to  overrule  her  objections,  to  do  it  in  a 
tender  and  kindly  form.  If  he  turns  to  her  with  roughness 
and  harshness  from  jealousy  of  his  place  of  rule,  it  is  not 
only  the  heart  of  his  wife  which  is  estranged  from  him;  with 
the  children,  too,  intervenes  a  weakening  of  the  moral  power, 
under  which  they  should  feel  themselves  placed.  If  in 
their  presence  their  mother  is  blamed  as  foolish  or  obstinate, 
and  so  lowered  to  the  place  of  a  child  or  a  maid-servant, 
that  sanctity  immediately  vanishes,  which,  in  the  eyes  of 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT  277 

the  children,  surrounds  the  heads  of  both  father  and  mother 
in  common.”  * 

Again  it  is  of  the  highest  importance  in  family  govern¬ 
ment,  that  parents  understand  how  early  it  begins — how 
easily,  in  fact,  the  great  question  of  rule  and  obedience  may 
be  settled,  or  well-nigh  settled,  before  the  time  of  verbal 
order  and  commandment  arrives.  Thus  there  is  what  may 
be  fitly  called  a  Christian  handling  for  the  infant  state, 
that  makes  a  most  solid  beginning  of  government.  It  is 
the  even  handling  of  repose  and  gentle  affection,  which  lays 
a  child  down  to  its  sleep  so  firmly,  that  it  goes  to  sleep  as 
in  duty  bound;  which  teaches  it  to  feed  when  food  is  wanted, 
not  when  it  can  be  somehow  made  uneasy,  or  the  mother  is 
uneasy  for  it;  which  refuses  to  wear  out  the  night  in  labori¬ 
ous  caresses  and  coaxings,  that  only  reward  the  cries  they 
endeavor  to  compose;  which  places  the  child  so  firmly, 
makes  so  little  of  the  protests  of  caprice  in  it,  wears  a  look 
so  gentle  and  loving,  and  goes  on  with  such  evenness  of  sys¬ 
tem,  that  the  child  feels  itself  to  be,  all  the  while,  in  another 
will,  and  that  a  good  will;  consenting  thus,  by  habit  and 
quietly,  to  be  lapped  in  authority,  just  as  it  consents  to 
breathe,  in  the  lap  of  nature  and  her  atmospheric  laws. 
And  so  it  becomes  a  thoroughly  governed  creature,  under 
the  mere  handling  of  its  infantile  age.  Neither  should  it 
seem  that  this  is,  in  any  sense,  an  exaggeration.  For  though 
the  government  we  speak  of  here  is  silent,  and  utters  for 
the  time  no  law,  there  still  is  law  enough  revealed  to  feeling 
in  the  mere  motions  and  modes  of  the  house.  Who  is  igno¬ 
rant  that  by  jerks  of  passion,  flashes  of  irritation,  unsteady 
changes  of  caprice  and  nervousness,  fits  of  self-indulgence, 
disgusts  with  self  and  life  that  are  half  the  time  allowed  to 

*  Page  99. 


278 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 


include  the  child,  songs  and  caresses  both  of  day  and  night, 
that  are  volunteered  as  much  to  compose  the  mother’s  or 
the  nurse’s  impatience  as  the  child’s — who  is  ignorant  that 
an  infant,  handled  in  this  manner,  may  be  kept  in  a  contin¬ 
ual  fret  of  torment  and  ill-nature.  Meantime  there  is,  just 
opposite,  what  a  beautiful  power  of  order,  and  quiet,  and 
happy  rule,  when  the  motions  and  modes  of  the  handling 
are  such  as  token  peace,  repose,  firmness,  system,  confi¬ 
dence,  and  a  steady  all-encompassing  love.  Here  is  law, 
felt,  we  may  even  say,  in  every  touch,  entered  into  every 
sensational  experience,  confided  in,  submitted  to,  with  all 
gravity.  So  that  when  the  time  of  words  arrives,  the  child 
is  already  under  government,  and  the  question  of  obedi¬ 
ence  and  order  is  already  half  settled. 

We  come  now  to  the  age  of  language,  or  the  age  when 
words  begin  to  be  used  to  express  requirement  and  author¬ 
ity.  Indeed  this  will  be  done,  assisted  by  tones  and  signs 
of  manner,  even  before  the  child  itself  is  able  to  speak. 

And  here  it  is  to  be  noted  that  much  depends  upon  the 
tone  of  command,  or  the  kinds  of  emphasis  employed.  It 
is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  what  will  make  a  child 
stare,  or  tremble,  impresses  more  authority.  The  violent 
.emphasis,  the  hard,  stormy  voice,  the  menacing  air,  only 
weakens  authority;  it  commands  a  good  thing  as  if  it  were 
only  a  bad,  and  fit  to  be  no  way  impressed,  save  by  some 
stress  of  assumption.  Let  the  command  be  always  given 
quietly,  as  if  it  had  some  right  in  itself,  and  could  utter 
itself  to  the  conscience  by  some  emphasis  of  its  own.  Is  it 
not  well  understood  that  a  bawling  and  violent  teamster 
has  no  real  government  of  his  team?  Is  it  not  practically 
seen  that  a  skillful  commander  of  one  of  those  huge  floating 
cities,  moved  by  steam  on  our  American  waters,  manages 
and  works  every  motion  by  the  waving  of  a  hand,  or  by 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 


279 


signs  that  pass  in  silence;  issuing  no  order  at  all,  save  in 
the  gentlest  undertone  of  voice?  So  when  there  is,  or  is  to 
be,  a  real  order  and  law  in  the  house,  it  will  come  of  no  hard 
and  boisterous,  or  fretful  and  termagant  way  of  command¬ 
ment.  Gentleness  will  speak  the  word  of  firmness,  and 
firmness  will  be  clothed  in  the  airs  of  true  gentleness. 

Nor  let  any  one  think  that  such  kind  of  authority  is  going 
to  be  disrespected,  or  disregarded,  because  it  moves  no 
fright  or  fear  in  the  subjects.  That  will  depend  on  the 
fidelity  of  the  parent  to  what  he  has  commanded.  How 
many  do  we  see,  who  fairly  rave  in  authority,  and  keep  the 
tempest  up  from  morning  to  night,  who  never  stop  to  see 
whether  any  thing  they  forbid  or  command  is,  in  fact,  ob¬ 
served.  Indeed  they  really  forget  what  they  have  com¬ 
manded.  Their  mandates  follow  so  thickly  as  to  crowd 
one  another,  and  even  to  successively  thrust  one  another 
out  of  remembrance.  And  the  result  is  that,  by  this  can¬ 
nonading  of  pop-guns,  the  successive  pellets  of  command¬ 
ment  are  in  turn  all  blown  away.  If  any  thing  is  fit  to  be 
forbidden,  or  commanded,  it  is  fit  to  be  watched  and  held 
in  faithful  account.  On  this  it  is  that  the  real  emphasis 
of  authority  depends,  not  on  the  wind-stress  of  the  utter¬ 
ance.  Let  there  be  only  such  and  so  many  things  com¬ 
manded,  as  can  be  faithfully  attended  to — these  in  a  gentle 
and  firm  voice,  as  if  their  title  to  obedience  lay  in  their  own 
merit — and  then  let  the  child  be  held  to  a  perfectly  inevi¬ 
table  and  faithful  account;  and,  by  that  time,  it  will  be  seen 
that  order  and  law  have  a  stress  of  their  own,  and  a  power 
to  rule  in  their  own  divine  right.  The  beauty  of  a  well- 
governed  family  will  be  seen,  in  this  manner,  to  be  a  kind 
of  silent,  natural-looking  power;  as  if  it  were  a  matter  only 
of  growth,  and  could  never  have  been  otherwise. 

At  first,  or  in  the  earlier  periods  of  childhood,  authority 


✓ 


280 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 


should  rest  upon  its  own  right,  and  expect  to  be  obeyed  just 
because  it  speaks.  It  should  stake  itself  on  no  assigned 
reasons,  and  have  nothing  to  do  with  reasons,  unless  it  be 
after  the  fact;  when,  by  showing  what  has  been  depending, 
in  a  manner  unseen  to  the  child,  it  can  add  a  presumption 
of  reason  to  all  future  commands.  It  is  even  a  good  thing 
to  the  moral  and  religious  nature  of  a  child,  to  have  its 
obedience  required,  and  to  be  accustomed  to  obedience,  on 
the  ground  of  simple  authority;  to  learn  homage  and  trust, 
as  all  subject  natures  must,  and  so  to  accept  the  rule  of  God’s 
majesty,  when  the  reasons  of  God  are  inscrutable.  There 
is  little  prospect  that  any  child  will  be  a  Christian,  or  any 
thing  but  a  skeptic,  or  a  godless  worldling,  who  has  not  had 
his  religious  nature  unfolded  by  an  early  subjection  to  au¬ 
thority,  speaking  in  its  own  right. 

Nay,  I  will  go  farther;  there  is  a  certain  use  in  having 
a  child,  in  the  first  stages  of  government,  feel  the  pressure 
of  law  as  a  restriction.  For,  as  the  law  of  God  is  a  school¬ 
master  to  bring  us  to  Christ,  so  there  is  a  like  relation  be¬ 
tween  law  and  liberty  in  the  training  of  the  house.  It  is 
by  a  certain  friction,  if  I  may  so  speak,  on  the  moral  nature, 
a  certain  pressure  of  control,  not  always  welcome,  that  the 
sense  of  law  gets  hold  of  us.  Observances  that  we  do  not 
like,  prepare  us  to  a  kind  of  obedience,  further  on,  that  is 
free — that  welcomes  the  same  command  because  it  is  good, 
the  same  authority  because  it  is  wholesome  and  right.  /  And 
so  it  comes  to  pass  that  a  son,  grown  almost  to  manhood, 
will  gladly  serve  the  house,  and  yield  to  his  parents  a  kind 
of  homage  that  even  anticipates  their  wishes,  just  be¬ 
cause  he  has  learned  to  be  in  subjection,  with  all  gravity, 
under  restrictions  that  were  once  a  sore  limit  on  his  pa¬ 
tience. 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 


281 


At  the  same  time  it  should  never  be  forgotten,  in  this 
due  assertion  of  authority  and  restrictive  law,  that  there  is 
a  great  difference  between  the  imperative  and  the  dictatorial; 
between  the  exact  and  the  exacting.  I  have  spoken  already 
of  the  common  fault  of  commanding  overmuch,  and  forget¬ 
ting  or  omitting  to  enforce  what  is  commanded;  there  is 
another  kind  of  fault  which  commands  overmuch,  and 
rigidly  exacts  what  is  commanded;  laying  on  commands, 
as  it  seems  to  the  child,  just  because  it  can,  or  is  willing  to 
gall  his  peace  by  exacting  something  that  shall  cut  away 
even  the  semblance  of  liberty.  No  parent  has  a  right  to 
put  oppression  on  a  child,  in  the  name  of  authority.  And 
if  he  uses  authority  in  that  way,  to  annoy  the  child’s  peace, 
and  even  to  forbid  his  possession  of  himself,  he  should  not 
complain,  if  the  impatience  he  creates  grows  into  a  bitter 
animosity,  and  finally  a  stiff  rebellion.  Nothing  should 
ever  be  commanded  except  what  is  needed  and  required 
by  the  most  positive  reasons,  whether  those  reasons  are 
made  known  or  not. 

Another  qualification  here  to  be  observed,  belongs  to  what 
may  be  called  the  emancipation  of  the  child.  A  wise  par¬ 
ent  understands  that  his  government  is  to  be  crowned  by 
an  act  of  emancipation;  and  it  is  a  great  problem,  to  ac¬ 
complish  that  emancipation  gracefully.  Pure  authority,  up 
to  the  last  limit  of  minority,  then  a  total,  instantaneous 
self-possession,  makes  an  awkward  transition.  A  young 
eagle  kept  in  the  nest  and  brooded  over  till  his  beak  and 
talons  are  full-grown,  then  pitched  out  of  it  and  required 
to  take  care  of  himself,  will  most  certainly  be  dashed  upon 
the  ground.  The  emancipating  process,  in  order  to  be  well 
finished,  should  begin  early,  and  should  pass  imperceptibly, 
even  as  age  increases  imperceptibly.  Thus  the  child,  after 


282 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 


being  ruled  for  a  time,  by  pure  authority,  should  begin,  as 
the  understanding  is  developed,  to  have  some  of  the  rea¬ 
sons  given  why  it  is  required  to  abstain,  or  do,  or  practice, 
in  this  or  that  way  instead  of  some  other.  The  tastes  of 
the  child,  too,  should  begin  to  be  a  little  consulted,  in  respect 
to  his  school,  his  studies,  his  future  engagements  in  life. 
When  he  is  old  enough  to  go  on  errands,  and  to  labor  in 
various  employments  for  the  benefit  of  the  family,  he  should 
be  let  into  the  condition  of  the  family  far  enough  to  be 
identified  with  it,  and  have  the  family  cause,  and  property, 
and  hope,  for  his  own.  Built  into  the  family  fortunes  and 
sympathies,  in  this  manner,  he  will  begin,  at  a  very  early 
day,  to  command  himself  for  it,  and  so  will  get  ready  to  com¬ 
mand  himself  for  himself,  in  a  way  that  will  be  just  as  if  the 
parental  authority  were  still  running  on,  after  it  has  quite 
run  by. 

Is  it  necessary  to  add  that  a  parent  who  governs  at  the 
point  of  authority  will  not,  of  course,  allow  himself  to  be 
known  only  as  a  bundle  of  commandments?  In  order  to 
have  authority,  he  must  have  life,  sympathy,  feeling  un¬ 
bent  in  play.  He  must  connect  a  gospel  with  his  law,  and 
so  instead  of  being  a  law  over  the  house,  he  must  undertake 
to  be  a  law  written  in  the  heart;  winning  love  as  command¬ 
ing  out  of  love,  consummating  obedience,  by  the  glad  and 
joyous  element  in  which  he  bathes  the  playful  homage  and 
trust  of  his  children. 

As  to  the  motives  addressed  by  family  government  in  a 
way  of  maintaining  or  securing  obedience,  they  need  to  be 
of  two  kinds;  such  as  belong  to  a  character  in  principle, 
and  such  as  belong  to  a  character  that  is  equivocal  in  it,  or 
fallen  below  it.  The  first  kind  should  never  be  left  out  of 
sight.  They  are  such  as  these:  doing  right  because  it  is 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 


283 


right;  loving  God  because  he  loves  the  right;  God’s  appro¬ 
bation;  the  approbation  of  a  good  conscience;  the  sense  of 
honor  with  himself,  as  opposed  to  the  meanness  of  lying  and 
deceit.  These  are,  by  distinction,  the  religious  motives; 
and  where  these  are  completely  ignored,  all  others  are 
radically  faulty,  of  course.  But  there  is,  beside,  a  very 
great  and  hurtful  mistake  that  is  commonly  made  in  choos¬ 
ing,  from  among  the  lower  and  second-class  motives,  those 
which  are  really  most  questionable,  and  most  likely  to  be 
followed  by  sinister  effects.  Here  again  we  are  to  follow 
God,  who  undertakes  to  dislodge  us,  in  the  plane  below 
principle,  or  keep  us  from  settling  into  it,  by  raking  it, 
every  way,  in  a  cannonade  of  penalty  and  fear.  No,  say 
the  plausible  sophisters  of  our  day,  in  what  they  take  to 
be  its  better  wisdom,  fear  is  a  mean  and  servile  motive;  we 
will  not  make  cowards  of  our  children.  They  do  not  ob¬ 
serve  the  very  considerable  distinction  between  terror  and 
fear;  that  terror  lays  hold  of  passion,  fear  of  intelligence;  that 
one  dispossesses  the  soul,  the  other  nerves  it  to  a  wise  and 
rational  prudence;  that  one  scatters  all  distinctions  of  prin¬ 
ciple,  and  the  other  turns  the  soul  thoughtfully  towards 
principle.  Missing  this  distinction,  they  make  their  ap¬ 
peal  sometimes  to  the  sense  of  honor  before  men,  frequently 
to  the  sense  of  appearance,  or  to  what  will  be  the  appear¬ 
ance  of  the  family,  not  less  frequently  to  the  desire  of  suc¬ 
cess  in  life;  praising  the  shows  of  bravery  and  spirit,  dei¬ 
fying,  so  to  speak,  human  conventionalities  and  laws  of 
fashion.  They  do  not  see  the  total  want  of  dignity  in  these 
appeals;  how  they  all  put  shams  and  shows,  and  falsities,  in 
the  place  of  solid  realities;  how  they  sort  with  all  lying 
semblances  of  virtue,  run  the  soul  into  all  most  cowardly 
fictions  of  time-serving,  pretense,  hypocrisy,  sycophancy, 


284 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 


and  make  even  hollowness  itself  the  principal  substance  of 
life.  Therefore  it  is  that  God  appeals  to  fear,  backs  author¬ 
ity  and  law  by  penalties  that  waken  fear;  because  this  one 
prudential  motive  has  a  place  by  itself,  in  not  being  positive 
or  acquisitive,  in  any  sense,  but  only  negative;  and  so  far 
has  the  semblance  of  unselfishness.  It  makes  no  one  selfish 
to  fear,  though  fear,  as  a  motive,  is  not  up  to  the  level  of 
principle  loved  for  its  own  sake.  The  wise  parent,  there¬ 
fore,  will  not  be  wiser  than  God;  and  wheresoever  fear  is 
needed,  he  will  speak  to  fear,  and  make  as  little  as  possible 
of  appearance,  popularity,  and  opinion,  understanding  that, 
if  he  is  to  have  his  children  in  subjection  with  all  gravity, 
they  must  be  brought  into  God’s  principle,  by  a  motive 
that  is  unambitious,  unworldly  and  real,  and  turns  the 
soul  away  by  no  computations  of  pride  and  airy  pre¬ 
tense. 

There  is,  then,  to  be  such  a  thing  as  penalty,  or  punish¬ 
ment,  in  the  government  of  the  house.  And  here  again  is  a 
place  where  large  consideration  is  requisite.  First  of  all, 
it  should  be  threatened  as  seldom  as  possible,  and  next  as 
seldom  executed  as  possible.  It  is  a  most  wretched  and 
coarse  barbarity  that  turns  the  house  into  a  penitentiary, 
or  house  of  correction.  Where  the  management  is  right 
in  other  respects,  punishment  will  be  very  seldom  needed. 
And  those  parents  who  make  it  a  point  of  fidelity,  that 
they  keep  the  flail  of  chastisement  always  a  going,  have  a 
better  title  to  the  bastinado  themselves  than  to  any  Chris¬ 
tian  congratulations.  The  punishments  dispensed  should 
never  be  such  as  have  a  character  of  ignominy;  and  there¬ 
fore,  except  in  cases  of  really  ignominious  wickedness,  it 
would  be  better  to  avoid,  as  far  as  may  be,  the  infliction  of 
pain  upon  the  person.  For  the  same  reason  the  discipline 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 


285 


should,  if  possible,  be  entirely  private;  a  matter  between 
the  parent  and  child.  Thus  it  is  well  said  by  Dr.  Tiersch, 
“If  ever  a  severe  punishment  is  necessary,  it  must  be  car¬ 
ried  out  so  as  to  spare  the  child’s  self-respect;  not  in  the 
presence  of  his  brothers  and  sisters,  nor  of  the  servants. 
For  a  wholesome  terror  to  the  others,  it  is  enough  if  they 
perceive,  at  a  distance,  something  of  that  which  happens. 
And  if  only  the  smallest  triumph  over  his  misfortune,  the 
least  degree  of  mockery  arise,  bitterness  and  a  loss  of  self- 
respect  are  the  consequences  to  the  child.”  * 

Punishments  should  be  severe  enough  to  serve  their  pur¬ 
pose;  and  gentle  enough  to  show,  if  possible,  a  tenderness 
that  is  averse  from  the  infliction.  There  is  no  abuse  more 
shocking,  than  when  they  are  administered  by  sheer  im¬ 
patience,  or  in  a  fit  of  passion.  Nor  is  the  case  at  all  sof¬ 
tened,  when  they  are  administered  without  feeling,  in  a 
manner  of  uncaring  hardness.  Whenever  the  sad  neces¬ 
sity  arrives,  there  should  be  time  enough  taken,  after  the 
wrong  or  detection,  to  produce  a  calm  and  thoughtful  re¬ 
vision;  and  a  just  concern  for  the  wrong,  as  evinced  by  the 
parent,  should  be  wakened,  if  possible,  in  the  child.  I 
would  not  be  understood,  however,  in  advising  this  more 
tardy  and  delicate  way  of  proceeding,  to  justify  no  excep¬ 
tions.  There  are  cases,  now  and  then,  in  the  outrageous 
and  shocking  misconduct  of  some  boy,  where  an  explosion 
is  wanted;  where  the  father  represents  God  best,  by  some 
terrible  outburst  of  indignant  violated  feeling,  and  becomes 
an  instant  avenger,  without  any  counsel  or  preparation 
whatever.  Nothing  else  expresses  fitly  what  is  due  to  such 
kind  of  conduct.  And  there  is  many  a  grown  up  man,  who 
will  remember  such  an  hour  of  discipline,  as  the  time  when 


*  Page  153. 


286 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 


the  ploughshare  of  God’s  truth  went  into  his  soul  like  re¬ 
demption  itself.  That  was  the  shock  that  woke  him  up 
to  the  staunch  realities  of  principle;  and  he  will  recollect 
that  father,  as  God’s  minister,  typified  to  all  dearest,  holiest, 
reverence,  by  the  pungent  indignations  of  that  time. 

There  is  great  importance  in  the  closing  of  a  penal  disci¬ 
pline.  Thus  it  should  be  a  law  never  to  cease  from  the  dis¬ 
cipline  begun,  whatever  it  be,  till  the  child  is  seen  to  be  in 
a  feeling  that  justifies  the  discipline.  He  is  never  to  be  let 
go,  or  sent  away,  sulking,  in  a  look  of  willfulness  unsubdued. 
Indeed,  he  should  even  be  required  always  to  put  on  a 
pleasant,  tender  look,  such  as  clears  all  clouds  and  shows 
a  beginning  of  fair  weather.  No  reproof,  or  discipline,  is 
rightly  administered  till  this  point  is  reached.  Nothing 
short  of  this  changed  look  gives  any  hope  of  a  changed  will. 
On  the  other  hand,  when  the  face  of  disobedience  brightens 
out  into  this  loving  and  dutiful  expression,  it  not  only  shows 
that  the  malice  of  wrong  is  gone  by,  but,  possibly,  that 
there  is  entered  into  the  heart  some  real  beginning  of  right, 
some  spirit  of  really  Christian  obedience.  Many  a  child 
is  bowed  to  holy  principle  itself,  at  the  happy  and  success¬ 
ful  close  of  what,  to  human  eyes,  is  only  a  chapter  of  disci¬ 
pline. 

fn  order  to  realize  this  Christian  issue  of  discipline,  it  is 
sometimes  recommended  that  the  child  should  be  first 
prayed  with,  and  made  conscious,  in  that  manner,  of  his  own 
wrong,  as  before  God,  and  of  the  truly  religious  intentions 
by  which  the  parent  is  actuated.  No  rule  of  this  kind  can 
be  safely  given;  for  there  is  great  danger  that  the  child  will 
begin  to  associate  prayer  and  religion  with  his  pains  of  dis¬ 
cipline;  than  which  nothing  could  be  more  hurtful.  It 
would  be  far  better,  in  most  cases,  if  the  prayer  were  to  fol- 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 


287 


low,  coming  in  to  express  and  gladden  his  already  glad  re¬ 
pentances. 

There  are  many  things  remaining  still  to  be  said,  in  order 
to  a  complete  view  of  the  subject;  but  there  are  two  sim¬ 
ple  cautions  that  must  not  be  omitted,  and  with  these  I 
close — 

1.  Observe  that  great  care  is  needed  in  the  processes  of 
detection,  or  the  police  of  discovery.  The  child  must  not 
be  allowed  to  go  on  breaking  through  the  orders  imposed, 
or  into  the  ways  of  vice,  not  detected.  This  will  make  his 
life  a  practice  in  art  and  hypocrisy;  and  what  is  worse,  will 
make  him  also  confident  of  success  in  the  same.  Nothing 
will  corrupt  his  moral  nature  more  rapidly.  There  must 
be  a  very  close  and  careful  watch  on  the  part  of  fathers  and 
mothers,  to  let  no  deviation  of  childhood  pass  their  discov¬ 
ery.  And  then,  again,  the  greatest  care  and  address  will 
be  needed,  to  keep  their  circumspection  from  taking  on  the 
look  of  a  deliberate  espionage,  than  which  nothing  will  more 
certainly  alienate  the  confidence  and  love  needful  to  their 
just  authority.  Nothing  wounds  a  child  more  fatally,  than 
to  see  he  is  not  trusted.  Under  such  an  impression,  he  will 
soon  become  as  unworthy  of  trust  as  he  has  been  taken  to 
be.  On  the  other  hand,  he  will  naturally  want  to  be  worthy 
of  the  trust  he  receives.  For  the  same  reason,  he  should 
never  be  set  upon  by  volunteer  charges,  or  accusations 
which  have  no  other  merit  than  to  be  the  ground  of  a  cross¬ 
questioning  process.  It  is  a  harsh  experiment  that  insults 
a  child,  in  order  to  find  out  whether  he  is  innocent  or  guilty. 
Besides,  if  he  is  guilty,  there  is  no  small  risk  of  drawing 
him  on  to  asseverations  of  innocence,  that  will  fatally  break 
down  his  truthfulness.  Neither  will  it  answer,  in  the  case 


288 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 


of  little  children,  to  make  them  reporters  of  their  own 
wrongs,  by  allowing  the  understanding  that  they  shall  so 
obtain  pardon.  For  then  they  are  only  trained  to  a  man¬ 
ner  of  sycophancy  that  mocks  all  government.  What 
then  shall  be  done?  First  of  all,  make  much  of  the  fact, 
that  when  a  child  is  doing  any  secret  wrong,  he  grows  shy, 
ceases  to  be  confiding  and  demonstrative,  even  as  Adam, 
when  he  hid  himself  among  the  trees.  Then  let  the  watch 
grow  close — watch  his  companions,  the  way  he  goes,  the  way 
he  returns,  his  times,  what  he  says,  and  what  he  particu¬ 
larly  avoids  speaking  of  at  all;  speak  of  his  shyness,  and 
observe  the  reasons  he  assigns,  question  his  reasons.  It 
will  be  difficult  for  any  young  child  to  escape  this  kind 
of  search.  Indeed,  this  kind  of  search  will  almost  never 
be  needed  if  children  are  inspected  carefully  enough,  at  a 
very  early  period,  when,  as  yet,  they  are  simple,  and  the 
art  of  wrong  has  not  begun  to  be  learned.  Accustomed 
then  to  the  feeling  that  art  hides  nothing,  they  will  never 
try  to  hide  any  thing  by  it  afterwards. 

2.  Have  it  as  a  caution  that,  in  holding  a  magisterial  re¬ 
lation,  asserting  and  maintaining  law,  discovering  and  re¬ 
dressing  wrong,  you  are  never,  as  parents,  to  lose  out  the 
parental;  never  to  check  the  demonstrations  of  your  love; 
never  to  cease  from  the  intercourse  of  play.  If  you  assert 
the  law,  as  you  must,  then  you  must  have  your  gospel  to 
go  with  it;  your  pardons  judiciously  dispensed,  your  Chris¬ 
tian  sympathies  flowing  out  in  modes  of  Christian  concern, 
your  whole  administration  tempered  by  tenderness.  Above 
all,  see  that  your  patience  is  not  easily  broken,  or  exhausted. 
If  your  authority  is  not  established  in  a  day,  you  have  small 
reason,  in  that  fact,  to  be  fretted,  or  discouraged,  and  the 
less  reason,  if  you  are  and  are  seen  to  be,  to  believe  that  it 


FAMILY  GOVERNMENT 


289 


ever  can  be  established.  There  will  sometimes  be  a  child, 
or  children,  given,  that  have  a  more  restive  and  less  easily 
reducible  nature  than  others,  and  partly  because  they  have 
more  to  reduce.  Time  with  such  is  commonly  a  great  ele¬ 
ment,  and  as  time  is  needed  for  them,  patience  will  be 
needed  in  you.  Let  them  have  a  little  more  experience  of 
themselves,  and  of  what  a  good  and  wise  regulation  means; 
let  their  rational  nature  be  farther  unfolded  and  come  to 
your  aid,  and  they  will  be  gradually  taking  sides  with  your 
authority.  The  other  and  more  tractable  children,  win¬ 
ning  on  their  respect,  will  also  assist  in  the  taming  of  their 
repugnances.  Meantime  God,  who  perhaps  gave  you  this 
trial  to  complete  your  patience,  and  purify  all  graces  in  you, 
will  be  raising  you  to  a  higher  pitch  of  character  and  au¬ 
thority,  which  no  most  wayward  child  can  well  resist.  And 
so  it  will  be  your  satisfaction  to  see,  in  due  time,  that  your 
reward  is  coming;  that  your  children  are  growing  into  all 
truth  and  order  together:  melting  into  all  confidence  and 
good  understanding  with  authority  itself.  Your  triumph 
will  now  be  sealed.  You  will  have  your  house  in  subjection 
with  all  gravity;  a  little  bishopric,  as  the  apostle  would  say, 
gathered  in  heaven’s  truth  and  unity,  obedient,  Christian, 
filial,  and  free. 


VI 


PLAYS  AND  PASTIMES,  HOLIDAYS  AND 

SUNDAYS 

“And  the  streets  of  the  city  shall  be  full  of  boys  and  girls,  playing  in 
the  streets  thereof.” — Zechariah  viii.  5. 

Happy  days  are  these  that  figure  in  the  prophet’s  vision. 
The  people  of  the  city  are  accustomed  to  scenes  that  are 
widely  different,  and  give  a  peculiar  zest  to  his  picture.  In 
the  times  of  pestilence,  in  the  horrors  of  the  siege,  in  the 
sweeping  out  of  captivity,  what  silence  of  desolation  have 
they  seen — the  silence  of  ghastly  death,  the  silence  of  gaunt 
famine,  the  silence  of  emptiness  and  depopulated  life.  It 
shall  no  more  be  so;  the  city  shall  be  God’s  mountain, 
sheltered  under  his  care,  exempt  from  all  the  past  desola¬ 
tions  of  pestilence  and  war — peaceful,  populous,  secure, 
and  strong.  All  which  is  shown  by  two  simple  touches 
that  make  out  the  complete  picture — “There  shall  yet  old 
men  and  old  women  dwell  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem,  and 
every  man  with  his  staff  in  his  hand  for  very  age.  And 
the  streets  of  the  city  shall  be  full  of  boys  and  girls,  playing 
in  the  streets  thereof.” 

We  can  see,  too,  for  ourselves  that  the  prophet’s  feeling 
goes  into  his  picture;  and  that  he  has  a  natural  delight  in 
it  himself.  He  sees  the  venerable  crones  gathering  at  the 
corners,  and  blesses  himself  in  the  sight;  hears  the  ring  of 
happy  voices  in  the  streets  and  market-places,  and  plays 
his  feeling  in,  with  the  playing  boys  and  girls  of  the  Lord’s 

290 


PLAYS  AND  PASTIMES,  HOLIDAYS  AND  SUNDAYS  291 


glad  mountain.  Inspiration  has  not  taken  the  nature  out 
of  him,  but  has  only  made  him  love  the  innocent  glee  of 
childhood  the  more. 

I  draw  it,  accordingly,  from  this  beautiful  touch  of  the 
prophet’s  picture,  that  religion  loves  too  much  the  plays  and 
pleasures  of  childhood ,  to  limit  or  suppress  them  by  any  kind 
of  needless  austerity. 

Having  set  the  young  of  all  the  animal  races  a  playing, 
and  made  their  beginning  an  age  of  frisking  life  and  joyous 
gambol,  it  would  be  singular  if  God  had  made  the  young  of 
humanity  an  exception;  or  if,  having  put  the  same  sportive 
instinct  in  their  make,  he  should  restrict  them  always  to 
a  carefully  practical  and  sober  mood.  What  indeed  does 
he  permit  us  to  see,  in  the  universal  mirth-time  which  is 
given  to  be  the  beginning  of  every  creature’s  life,  but  that 
He  takes  a  certain  pleasure  in  their  exuberant  life,  and  re¬ 
gards  their  gambols  with  a  fatherly  satisfaction?  What, 
too,  shall  we  judge,  but  that  as  all  instincts  are  inserted  for 
that  to  which  they  tend,  so  this  instinct  of  play  in  children 
is  itself  an  appointment  of  play  ? 

Besides,  there  is  a  very  sublime  reason  for  the  play  state 
of  childhood  which  respects  the  moral  and  religious  well¬ 
being  of  manhood,  and  makes  it  important  that  we  should 
have  our  first  chapter  of  life  in  this  key.  Play  is  the  sym¬ 
bol  and  interpreter  of  liberty,  that  is,  Christian  liberty; 
and  no  one  could  ever  sufficiently  conceive  the  state  of  free 
impulse  and  the  joy  there  is  in  it,  save  by  means  of  this 
unconstrained,  always  pleasurable  activity,  that  we  call 
the  play  of  children.  Play  wants  no  motive  but  play;  and 
so  true  goodness,  when  it  is  ripe  in  the  soul  and  is  become  a 
complete  inspiration  there,  will  ask  no  motive  but  to  be  good. 
Therefore  God  has  purposely  set  the  beginning  of  the  nat- 


292 


PLAYS  AND  PASTIMES, 


ural  life  in  a  mood  that  foreshadows  the  last  and  highest 
chapter  of  immortal  character.  Just  as  he  has  made  hunger 
in  the  body  to  represent  hunger  in  the  soul,  thirst  in  the 
body  to  represent  thirst  in  the  soul,  what  is  sweet,  bitter, 
sour  in  the  taste  to  represent  what  is  sweet,  bitter,  sour 
in  the  soul’s  feeling,  lameness  to  represent  the  hobbling  of 
false  principle,  the  fierce  combustion  of  heat  to  represent 
the  rage  of  angry  passion,  all  things  natural  to  represent  4 
all  things  spiritual,  so  he  prepares,  at  the  very  beginning 
of  our  life,  in  the  free  self-impulsion  of  play,  that  which  is  to 
foreshadow  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  soul’s  ripe  order  and 
attainment  in  good.  One  is  the  paradise  of  nature  behind 
us,  the  other  the  paradise  of  grace  before  us;  and  the  recol¬ 
lection  of  one  images  to  us,  and  stimulates  us  in,  the  pursuit 
of  the  other. 

Holding  this  conception  of  the  uses,  and  the  very  great 
importance  of  play,  as  a  natural  interpreter  of  what  is  high¬ 
est  and  last  in  the  grand  problem  of  our  life  itself,  we  are  led, 
on  sober  and  even  religious  conviction,  to  hold  in  high  esti¬ 
mation  the  age  of  play.  As  play  is  the  forerunner  of  relig¬ 
ion,  so  religion  is  to  be  the  friend  of  play;  to  love  its  free 
motion,  its  happy  scenes,  its  voices  of  glee,  and  never,  by 
any  needless  austerities  of  control,  seek  to  hamper  and 
shorten  its  pleasures.  Any  sort  of  piety  or  supposed  piety 
that  is  jealous  of  the  plays  and  bounding  activities  of  child¬ 
ish  life,  is  a  character  of  hardness  and  severity  that  has,  so 
far  at  least,  but  a  very  questionable  agreement  with  God’s 
more  genial  and  fatherly  feeling.  One  of  the  first  duties 
of  a  genuinely  Christian  parent  is,  to  show  a  generous  sym¬ 
pathy  with  the  plays  of  his  children;  providing  playthings 
and  means  of  play,  giving  them  play-times,  inviting  suitable 
companions  for  them,  and  requiring  them  to  have  it  as  one 


HOLIDAYS  AND  SUNDAYS 


293 


of  their  pleasures,  to  keep  such  companions  entertained  in 
their  plays,  instead  of  playing  always  for  their  own  mere 
self-pleasing.  Sometimes,  too,  the  parent,  having  a  hearty 
interest  in  the  plays  of  his  children,  will  drop  out  for  the  time 
the  sense  of  his  years,  and  go  into  the  frolic  of  their  mood 
with  them.  They  will  enjoy  no  other  play-time  so  much 
as  that,  and  it  will  have  the  effect  to  make  the  authority, 
so  far  unbent,  just  as  much  stronger  and  more  welcome,  as 
it  has  brought  itself  closer  to  them,  and  given  them  a  more 
complete  show  of  sympathy. 

On  the  same  principle,  it  has  an  excellent  effect  to  make 
much  of  the  birthdays  of  children,  because  it  shows  them, 
little  and  dependent  as  they  are,  to  be  held  in  so  much 
greater  estimation  in  the  house.  When  they  have  each  their 
own  day,  when  that  day  is  so  remembered  and  observed  as 
to  indicate  a  real  and  felt  interest  in  it  by  all,  then  the  home 
in  which  they  are  so  cherished  is  proportionally  endeared 
to  feeling,  and  what  has  magnified  them  they  are  ready  to 
magnify. 

On  the  same  principle,  too,  public  days  and  festivals, 
those  of  the  school,  those  of  the  state,  and  those  of  religion, 
are  to  be  looked  upon  with  favor,  as  times  in  which  they  are 
to  be  gladdened  by  the  shows,  and  plays,  and  simple  plea¬ 
sures  appropriate  to  the  occasions;  care  being  only  taken 
to  put  them  in  no  connection  with  vice,  or  any  possible  ex¬ 
cess.  Let  them  see  what  is  to  be  seen,  enjoy  what  is  to  be 
enjoyed,  and  shun  with  just  so  much  greater  sensibility  what¬ 
ever  is  loose,  or  wild,  or  wicked. 

Religious  festivals  have  a  peculiar  value  to  children; 
such  I  mean  as  the  festivals  of  Thanksgiving  and  Christ¬ 
mas — one  a  festival  of  thanks  for  the  benefits  of  Providence, 
the  other  for  the  benefits  of  that  supernatural  providence 


294 


PLAYS  AND  PASTIMES, 


which  has  given  the  world  a  Saviour  and  a  salvation.  Both 
are  religious,  and,  in  that  fact,  have  their  value;  for  nothing 
will  go  farther  to  remove  the  annoyance  of  a  continual,  un¬ 
sparing,  dry  restraint  upon  the  soul  of  childhood,  and 
produce  a  feeling,  as  respects  religion,  of  its  really  genial 
character,  than  to  have  it  bring  its  festive  and  joyously 
commemorative  days.  One  of  the  great  difficulties  in  a 
properly  religious  nurture  is,  that  religion  has  to  open  its  ap¬ 
proaches  to  the  soul,  and  make  its  beginnings  in  the  shape  of 
law;  to  say  God  requires  of  you  this,  forbids  you  in  that, 
makes  it  your  life  to  be  set  in  all  ways  of  obedience.  It 
takes  on  thus  a  guise  of  constraint,  and  so  far  wears  a  repul¬ 
sive  look;  but  if  it  can  show  how  genial  it  is,  how  truly  it 
loves  even  childish  enjoyment,  by  gilding  for  it  days  of  joy 
and  festive  celebrations,  then  the  severities  of  law  and  re¬ 
sponsible  obedience  take  on  themselves  a  look  of  benignity, 
and  it  begins  to  be  felt  that  God  commands  us,  not  to  crip¬ 
ple  us,  but  to  keep  us  safe  and  lead  us  into  good.  Such 
days,  it  is  true,  may  be  greatly  abused  by  what  is  really  un¬ 
christian;  what  is  sensual  and  low,  and  very  close  to  vice  it¬ 
self;  and  it  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  Christmas  fes¬ 
tival,  otherwise  so  beautiful  and  appropriate,  taken  as  a 
Christian  commemoration  of  the  greatest  fact  of  the  world’s 
history,  has  been  so  commonly  associated  with  traditional 
looseness  and  excess.  The  friends  of  such  a  day  can  not  do 
it  any  so  great  honor,  as  to  clear  it  entirely  of  the  excess 
and  profane  jollity  by  which  it  was  made  to  commemorate 
any  thing  and  every  thing  but  Christ,  that,  setting  it  in 
character  as  a  genuine  religious  festivity,  they  may  give  it 
to  all  friends  of  Christ  as  a  day  of  universal  observance. 

Happily  there  is  now  such  an  abundance  of  games  and 
plays  prepared  for  the  entertainment  of  children,  that  there 


HOLIDAYS  AND  SUNDAYS 


295 


is  no  need  of  allowing  them  in  any  that  stand  associated 
with  vice.  Those  plays  are  generally  to  be  most  favored  that 
are  to  be  had  only  in  the  open  air,  and  in  forms  of  exercise, 
that  give  sprightliness  and  robustness  to  the  body.  At  the' 
same  time,  there  needs  to  be  a  preparation  of  devices  for 
the  entertainment  of  children  indoors  in  the  evening;  for 
the  prophet  did  not  give  it  as  a  picture  of  the  happy  days 
of  Jerusalem,  that  the  streets  of  the  city  should  be  full  of 
boys  and  girls  playing  there  in  the  evening,  or  into  the  night, 
away  from  their  parents  and  the  supervision  of  their  home. 
There  is  any  thing  signified  in  that  but  happiness  and 
public  well-being.  Christian  fathers  and  mothers  will 
never  suffer  their  children  to  be  out  in  the  public  streets  in 
the  evening,  unless  they  are  themselves  too  loose  and  self- 
indulgent  to  assume  that  care  of  the  conduct  and  the  hours 
of  their  children,  which  is  imposed  upon  them  by  their  pa¬ 
rental  responsibilities.  In  country  places,  far  removed 
from  all  the  haunts  of  vice,  and  in  neighborhoods  where 
there  are  no  vicious  children,  it  might  work  no  injury  if 
boys  were  allowed  to  be  out,  now  and  then,  in  their  coast¬ 
ing  or  skating  parties  in  the  evening.  But  the  better  rule 
in  large  towns,  the  absolute  rule,  having  no  exceptions  as 
regards  very  young  children,  will  be  that  they  are  never 
to  be  out  or  away  from  home  in  the  evening.  Meantime, 
it  will  be  the  duty  of  the  parents,  and  a  kind  of  study  es¬ 
pecially  of  the  mother,  to  find  methods  of  making  the  house 
no  mere  prison,  but  a  place  of  attraction,  and  of  always 
cheerful  and  pleasant  society.  She  will  provide  books  that 
will  feed  their  intelligence  and  exercise  their  tastes — pic¬ 
tures,  games,  diversions,  plays;  set  them  to  inventing  such 
themselves,  teaching  them  how  to  carry  on  their  little  soci¬ 
ety,  in  the  playful  turns  of  good  nature  and  fun,  by  which 


296 


PLAYS  AND  PASTIMES, 


they  stimulate  and  quicken  each  other;  drilling  them  in 
music,  and  setting  them  forward  in  it  by  such  beginnings 
that  they  will  shortly  be  found  exercising  and  training 
each  other;  shedding  over  all  the  play,  infusing  into  all  the 
glee,  a  certain  sober  and  thoughtful  look  of  character  and 
principle,  so  that  no  overgrown  appetite  for  sport  may  ren¬ 
der  violent  pleasures  necessary,  but  that  small,  and  gentle, 
and  easy,  and  almost  sober  pleasures,  may  suffice;  becom¬ 
ing,  at  last,  even  most  satisfactory.  Here  is  the  field  of 
the  mother’s  greatest  art,  viz. :  in  the  finding  how  to  make  a 
happy  and  good  evening  for  her  children.  Here  it  is  that 
the  lax,  faithless,  worthless  mother  most  entirely  fails;  here 
the  good  and  wise  mother  wins  her  best  successes. 

Meantime  some  care  must  be  exercised,  that  the  religious 
life  itself  be  never  set  in  an  attitude  of  repugnance  to  the 
plays  of  childhood.  There  must  be  no  attempt  to  raise  a 
conscience  against  play.  Any  such  religion  will  certainly 
go  to  the  wall;  any  such  conscience  will  be  certainly  tram¬ 
pled,  and  things  innocent  will  be  done  as  if  they  were  crimes; 
done  with  a  guilty  feeling;  done  with  as  bad  effects  every 
way,  on  the  character,  as  if  they  were  really  the  worst 
things.  Nothing  is  more  cruel  than  to  throw  a  child  into 
the  attitude  of  conflict  with  God  and  his  conscience,  by 
raising  a  false  conscience  against  that  which  both  God  and 
nature  approve.  It  is  nothing  less  than  making  a  gratuitous 
loss  of  religion,  required  by  no  terms  of  reason,  justified  by 
no  principle,  even  of  Christian  sacrifice  itself. 

Suppose,  for  example,  that  a  child  has  begun  to  show 
many  pleasant  evidences  of  love  to  God  and  all  good  things, 
but  that  he  is  eager  still  in  play,  or  sometimes  gets  quite 
wild  in  the  excitement  of  it.  If,  at  such  a  time,  it  is  sprung 
upon  him,  as  a  conclusion,  that  he  does  not  truly  love  God, 


HOLIDAYS  AND  SUNDAYS 


297 


because  he  is  so  much  taken  by  the  excitements  of  play,  he 
will  thus  be  discouraged  without  reason,  in  all  his  confi¬ 
dences  of  piety,  and  it  will  be  strange,  if  by  and  by  he  does 
not  begin  to  show  a  settled  aversion  to  religious  things. 
How  can  he  do  less,  when  he  is  compelled  to  see  it,  as  in  con¬ 
flict  with  all  the  most  innocent  and  most  truly  natural  in¬ 
stincts  of  his  age?  Or,  to  make  the  case  more  plain,  draw¬ 
ing  the  question  to  a  closer  point,  suppose  the  child,  having 
so  many  evidences  of  piety  in  his  dispositions,  to  be  found 
at  some  kind  of  play  in  the  family  prayers,  or  that  he  rushes 
out  from  such  prayers,  in  a  manner  that  indicates  eager¬ 
ness  and  an  emancipated  feeling,  or  that  he  sometimes 
shows  uneasiness  in  the  hours  of  public  worship  on  Sunday, 
or  gives  manifest  tokens,  in  the  morning,  of  a  desire  to  escape 
from  it,  is  it  then  to  be  set  down,  in  your  parental  remon¬ 
strances  with  him,  that  he  has,  of  course,  no  love  to  God,  or 
the  things  of  religion?  By  no  means.  How  often  does 
the  adult  Christian  feel  even  a  disinclination  to  such  things; 
how  often  hurry  away  from  his  formal  prayer,  that  he  may 
get  into  his  shop,  or  his  field,  or  into  some  negotiation  that 
has  haunted  his  sleep  in  the  night;  how  often  sit  through 
sermons  with  his  mind  on  the  game  of  politics,  on  the  invest¬ 
ment  made  or  to  be  made,  on  his  journey,  or  his  mortgage, 
or  the  rivals  he  has  in  his  trade  ?  Is  it  worse  for  a  child  to 
be  after  his  plays,  with  only  the  same  kind  of  eagerness? 
Doubtless  all  such  engrossments  of  the  soul,  whether  of  one 
kind  or  the  other,  are  to  be  taken  as  bad  signs,  and,  as  far 
as  they  go,  to  be  allowed  their  due  weight.  But  which  is 
worse  and  more  fatal,  the  child’s  undue  possession  by  the 
spirit  of  play,  or  the  man’s  by  the  spirit  of  gain — the  honest, 
artless,  letting  forth  of  nature  by  one,  or  the  deliberate, 
studied,  scheming  of  the  other— it  is  not  difficult,  I  think, 


298 


PLAYS  AND  PASTIMES, 


to  guess.  No  matter  if  the  latter  is  more  sober  and  thought¬ 
ful  in  the  mood,  observing  a  better  show  of  gravity.  For 
just  that  reason  he  is  only  to  be  judged  the  more  harshly. 
If  then  we  can  bear  with  adult  Christians,  who  are  much 
in  the  world,  and,  forgetting  themselves  often,  fall  into 
moods  of  real  disinclination  to  their  duty,  are  we  to  set  it 
down  as  some  total  evidence  against  the  piety  of  a  child, 
that,  by  mere  exuberance  of  life,  he  is  occasionally  hurried 
away  from  sacred  things,  into  matters  of  play?  Nothing 
is  more  unjust./  Why  should  we  require  it  of  a  child  to  be 
perfect,  when  we  do  not  require  it  of  a  man  ?  And  if  we 
tolerate  inconstancy  of  feeling  or  impulse  in  one,  why  not 
a  much  less  worldly  and  deliberate  inconstancy  in  the 
other  ? 

Thus  far  we  speak  for  the  side  of  play,  showing  how  far 
off  it  is  from  the  purpose  of  religion  to  take  away,  or  sup¬ 
press,  the  innocent  plays  of  childhood;  how  ready  it  is,  on 
the  other  hand,  to  foster  them  and  give  them  sympathy. 
But  it  is  not  the  whole  of  life,  even  to  a  child,  to  be  indulged 
in  play.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  order,  no  less  than  such 
a  thing  as  liberty;  and  the  process  of  adjustment  between 
these  two  contending  powers,  begins  at  a  very  early  date. 
Under  the  law  of  the  house,  of  the  school,  and  of  God,  the 
mere  play  impulse  begins  very  soon  to  be  tempered  and 
moderated  by  duty,  and  the  problem  is  to  make  divine 
order  itself,  at  last,  a  state  of  liberty  analogous  to  the  state 
of  play,  as  already  suggested.  But  the  law  that  is  to  fash¬ 
ion  such  order  will  be  first  felt  as  a  restriction;  then,  when  it 
becomes  the  spirit  of  the  life,  the  order  itself  will  be  liberty. 
There  is  no  such  thing,  therefore,  as  a  possibility  to  child¬ 
hood  of  unrestricted  play.  Restriction  must  be  encountered 


HOLIDAYS  AND  SUNDAYS 


299 


as  often  as  the  order  of  the  house  demands  it,  then  as  often 
as  the  school  demands  it,  then  as  often  as  the  duties  of  re¬ 
ligion  demand  it;  though  such  restrictions  are  never  to  be 
looked  upon  as  hostile  to  the  child’s  play,  but  only  as  terms 
that  are  really  necessary  for  his  training  into  the  organic 
relations  under  which  he  is  born,  best  for  his  character,  and 
even  best  for  the  enjoyments  of  his  play  itself.  Other¬ 
wise  he  would  either  become  sated  by  it  in  a  short  time,  or 
his  appetite  for  it  would  become  so  egregiously  overgrown, 
that  no  possible  devices  or  means  could  be  invented  to  keep 
pace  with  it.  Besides,  a  child,  thus  put  to  nothing  but 
mere  play,  would  very  soon  grow  into  such  lightness  and 
dissipation  of  feeling,  as  to  be  mentally  addled,  and  would 
so  be  wholly  incapacitated  for  any  of  the  more  sober  and 
manly  offices  of  life. 

Here,  then,  begins  a  process  of  training  into  moral  order, 
which,  without  wishing  to  be  any  restriction  upon  play,  is 
yet  of  necessity  such  a  restriction.  The  child  is  required 
to  conform  his  conduct,  including  his  plays,  to  the  peace  of 
the  house,  to  the  conditions  of  sick  persons  in  it,  to  the  hours 
and  times  and  general  comfort  of  other  inmates  older  than 
himself.  Errands  are  put  upon  him  that  require  him  to 
forego  his  pleasures.  When  he  is  old  enough,  he  is  set  to 
works  of  industry,  it  may  be,  that  he  may  contribute  some¬ 
thing  to  the  general  benefit.  By  all  which  restrictions  of  play, 
he  is  only  prepared  to  enjoy  his  pastimes  and  plays  the  more. 
The  restrictions  he  will  doubtless  feel,  at  the  time,  and  may 
be  somewhat  restive  under  them;  but  when  he  is  thoroughly 
brought  into  the  order  of  the  house,  and  is  set  in  the  habit 
of  serving  it,  as  an  interest  of  his  own,  then  he  will  obey, 
contrive,  and  work,  and  even  drudge  himself  to  serve  it, 
constrained  by  no  motive  but  the  service  itself. 


300 


PLAYS  AND  PASTIMES, 


In  the  same  manner  it  will  be  laid  upon  him  to  be  at  his 
place  in  the  school,  to  be  punctual  to  his  times,  to  miss  no 
lesson,  to  hold  his  mind  to  his  studies  by  close,  unfaltering 
application,  even  though  it  cost  him  a  loss  of  just  that  lib¬ 
erty  in  play  that  he  would  most  like,  and  take  it  as  the  very 
bliss  of  his  good  fortune  to  have.  Restricted  thus  by  the 
order  of  the  school,  he  will  only  enjoy  his  play-times  the 
more,  and  finally  will  come  to  the  enjoyment  of  study  itself 
for  its  own  sake. 

And  so  it  will  be  in  religion.  There  must,  of  course,  be 
in  it,  what  may  be  called  restrictions  upon  children.  All 
law  is  felt  as  restriction  at  the  first,  but  it  will  not  be  that 
God  makes  war  on  their  innocent  plays;  they  only  need  as 
much  to  be  established  in  right  conduct,  well  doing,  and 
piety,  as  to  have  their  indulgence  in  such  pleasures.  If 
God  will  take  them  away  from  all  misrule  and  wretchedness, 
and  will  bring  them  into  all  best  conditions  of  blessedness 
and  peace,  and  even  of  liberty  itself,  he  must  put  them 
under  his  commandments,  train  them  into  his  divine  will, 
and  settle  them  in  his  own  perfect  order;  and  if  he  is  obliged, 
in  such  a  design,  to  infringe  here  and  there  up'on  their  plays, 
it  is  not  because  he  likes  the  infringement,  but  only  that  he 
seeks  the  higher  bliss  of  character  for  them.  Thus  when  a 
little  child  is  required  to  say  his  prayers  and  retire  at  the 
proper  time  for  sleep,  there  is  nothing  to  complain  of  in  that 
kind  of  constraint,  even  though  he  wants  to  continue  his 
play;  for  the  thing  required  is  plainly  for  his  good — this 
for  the  double  reason  that  it  trains  him  toward  obedience 
to  God,  and  a  life  in  heaven’s  order,  and  because  it  even  gives 
him  a  better  appetite  and  a  fuller  fund  of  vigor  for  his  play 
itself.  And  so  it  is  universally;  no  constraint  is  to  be 
blamed  as  infringement  on  his  happiness,  or  a  harsh  severity 


HOLIDAYS  AND  SUNDAYS 


301 


against  his  pleasures,  when,  in  fact,  all  highest  happiness 
and  widest  range  of  liberty  depend  on  the  requirement  im¬ 
posed. 

The  suggestions  and  distinctions  thus  far  advanced,  have, 
it  will  now  be  seen,  another  kind  of  use  and  importance, 
when  taken  as  preparatives  for  the  settlement  of  a  great 
practical  question,  viz.:  how  to  use  the  Christian  Sabbath, 
or  Sunday,  so  as  to  best  honor  the  day  in  its  true  import, 
and  best  secure  the  ends  of  Christian  nurture.  The  ques¬ 
tion  is  one  that  relates  to  a  whole  seventh  part  of  the  child’s 
time,  and  to  just  that  part  which  is  most  peculiarly  religious 
in  the  form,  and  most  likely  to  assist  the  implanting  and 
due  fostering  of  religious  impressions.  So  much  indeed 
is  there  in  this  matter  of  a  right  use  of  Sundays,  that  the 
success  of  family  nurture  will  be  more  exactly  represented 
and  measured  by  that  use,  than  by  any  thing  else.  Sun¬ 
day  is  pre-eminently  the  child’s  day  for  the  soul,  and  the 
defective  or  bad  use  of  it  is  never  going  to  be  compensated 
by  any  wisest,  best  use  of  the  other  six  days  of  the  week. 
Indeed  there  is  so  much  depending  on  this  day,  as  regards 
human  society,  and  the  growth,  and  purity,  and  power  of 
religion,  that  where  it  is  lost  in  the  training  of  families,  no 
other  kind  of  advantage — no  liturgical  drill,  or  eloquent 
preaching,  or  faithful  and  clear  doctrine — can  possibly  make 
up  the  loss. 

The  main  question,  here,  is  how  much,  or  little,  of  re¬ 
striction  is  to  be  laid  upon  children  in  the  due  observance 
of  the  day?  And  the  tendency  is,  it  will  be  observed,  to 
one  or  the  other  of  two  opposite  extremes — that  of  undue 
severity,  or  that  of  unchristian  looseness — and  this,  for  two 
distinct  sets  of  reasons.  Sometimes  for  the  reason  of  self- 


302 


PLAYS  AND  PASTIMES, 


indulgence,  or  indolence  in  the  parents;  and  sometimes  for 
the  reason  of  insufficient  views  of  the  day,  as  it  stands  in 
the  Scripture,  or  in  the  judgments  to  be  held  of  its  uses. 
Thus  it  will  be  noted — 

1.  That,  where  parents  are  too  indolent  for  any  kind  of 
painstaking  in  their  families,  they  will  contrive  to  ease  the 
burdens  of  their  duty  by  one  or  the  other  of  two  distinct 
methods.  They  will  either  take  up  the  notion  that  it  is 
best  and  most  soundly  orthodox,  to  make  a  very  stiff  prac¬ 
tice  for  their  children;  in  which  case  they  will  perhaps  re¬ 
quire  them  to  sit  down  within  doors  a  good  part  of  the  day, 
learning  catechism  or  scripture,  stilling  the  house  in  that 
manner  so  as  to  allow  them  to  sleep;  or  else  they  will  take 
up  the  notion  that,  in  modern  times,  we  are  to  be  more 
liberal,  of  course,  being  more  intelligent;  in  which  case  they 
will  get  their  children  off  to  the  Sunday-school,  (with  a  les¬ 
son,  or  without,)  or  if  they  better  like  it,  send  them  into 
the  streets,  or  the  fields.  Here  is  the  first  great  obstacle 
to  be  encountered,  in  securing  a  right  and  useful  Sunday 
in  families,  viz.:  that  invincible  self-indulgence  in  parents, 
which  is  the  bane  of  all  true  care  and  responsibility;  the 
poison,  too,  of  all  honest  judgment  in  finding  what  the  way 
of  duty  is.  They  have  frequently  no  such  earnest  and 
prayerful  desire  of  the  religious  benefit  of  their  children,  as 
fastens  their  own  attention,  or  presses  them  into  a  study  of 
plans  and  expedients  for  creating  a  religious  interest  in  their 
minds.  And  then  a  double  mischief  follows,  viz. :  that  they 
grow  rusty  themselves  in  their  religious  character,  and  hav¬ 
ing  no  good  conscience,  subside  into  a  state  of  silence  and 
acknowledged  incapacity;  and  next,  that,  having  become 
mere  drones  of  respectful  nothingness  in  the  positive  duties 
of  religion,  they  stand  as  actual  impediments  in  the  way  of 


HOLIDAYS  AND  SUNDAYS 


303 


all  genuine  religious  impressions  in  their  families.  The 
man  who  can  make  sacrifices  and  take  pains  for  his  chil- 
dren  at  home  will  grow  and  be  a  useful  Christian  every¬ 
where;  and  the  man  who  can  not,  will  be  a  dead  weight 
everywhere./  Here  is  the  secret  of  a  great  part  of  that  dry¬ 
ing  up  of  character  which  we  so  often  deplore;  and  the 
secret  also  of  that  strangely  irreligious  temper,  that  hatred 
and  contempt  of  all  religion,  that  so  often  excites  our  won¬ 
der  in  the  children  of  nominally  Christian  families.  Let 
no  parent  hope  to  have  God’s  blessing  on  the  Sundays  of 
his  house,  or  indeed  on  any  thing  else  that  concerns  the  re¬ 
ligious  welfare  of  his  children,  unless  he  is  willing  to  take 
pains,  make  sacrifices,  burn  as  a  light  of  holy  example,  for 
them  and  before  them.  Pass  then, 

2.  To  the  inquiry  what  is  the  true  conception  of  our 
Lord’s  day,  or  Sunday?  What,  according  to  the  Scrip¬ 
ture,  and  to  all  sound  judgment  of  the  day,  as  related  to 
the  Christian  training  of  families,  and  to  the  general  welfare 
of  society,  is  the  mode  and  amount  of  restriction  imposed 
by  it?  I  think  it  will  be  found,  in  giving  a  right  answer 
to  this  question,  that  the  true  use  of  the  day  lies  between 
two  errors,  or  extremes,  that  stand  over  against  each  other; 
one  that  makes  a  virtually  Jewish  day  of  it,  and  an  opposite 
that,  with  undue  haste,  quite  sweeps  it  away.  Neither  is 
the  mode  of  scripture,  and  the  two  are  about  equally  weak, 
as  regards  their  philosophic  grounds  and  reasons. 

According  to  the  Scripture,  God  ordained  a  religious 
day,  called  a  Sabbath,  at  the  very  morning  of  the  creation. 
This  was  the  day  that  Moses  found  already  existing  and 
only  re-enacted  in  the  ten  tables  of  the  moral  law,  as  he 
did  the  statutes  against  lying  and  murder.  The  Sabbath 
stands,  therefore,  on  precisely  the  same  ground,  scripturally, 


304  PLAYS  AND  PASTIMES, 

as  the  others;  on  the  same  too  morally,  save  that  the  pre¬ 
cise  natural  and  social  reasons  for  it,  equally  clear  to  God, 
are  not  so  to  us;  and  that,  so  far,  it  has  the  character  to  us 
of  a  simply  divine  institute,  while  the  other  nine  statutes 
of  the  decalogue  have  the  nature  of  acknowledged  principles, 
grounded  in  their  perceptible  moral  reasons.  Could  we  also 
grasp,  as  God  does,  the  precise  natural  reasons  for  observ¬ 
ing  just  one  day  in  seven  as  holy  time,  tracing  perfectly  the 
vast  religious,  and  social,  and  moral,  and  physical  effects 
involved,  it  would  have  no  more  the  look  of  an  institute, 
and  would  become  a  principle  of  natural  obligation,  like  the 
others  that  stand  with  it. 

In  this  view,  it  can  not  be  repealed  any  more  than  the 
statute  against  theft,  or  false  witness.  It  is  not  a  Jewish 
day,  in  any  proper  sense  of  the  term,  but  a  day  of  humanity, 
a  world’s-creation  day;  type  also  and  ground  of  the  new- 
creation  day  of  the  Lord.  Moses  went  on,  it  is  true,  after 
the  delivery  of  the  decalogue,  and  ordained  laws  civil,  and 
police  regulations,  by  which  the  Sabbath  was  to  be  observed 
and  enforced,  and  it  was  these  that  gave  a  Jewish  character 
to  their  Sabbath.  And,  so  far,  no  farther,  it  was  that  the 
Sabbath  was  repealed,  in  becoming  a  Lord’s  day.  When 
Paul  complains  to  the  Colossians,  that  they  “observe  new 
moons  and  Sabbaths,”  and  boldly  rebukes  the  Galatians, 
that  they  “turn  again  to  the  beggarly  elements  desiring 
to  be  in  bondage,”  and  “observe  days,  and  months,  and 
times,  and  years,”  he  does  not  mean  to  call  the  seventh  day 
of  the  decalogue  beggarly  elements,  any  more  than  he  does 
the  command  to  have  but  one  God,  or  not  to  steal  or  kill. 
The  beggarly  elements  are  the  political  additions,  those  rigors 
of  observance  that  were  added  by  the  political  statutes 
and  the  religious  drill  of  the  ritual;  designed,  as  it  was,  for 
a  slavish  people,  low  in  their  perceptions,  and  unable  to 


HOLIDAYS  AND  SUNDAYS 


305 


know  religion  at  all,  save  in  the  practice  of  austerities  under 
it.  Restriction  was  to  them,  at  their  low  point,  about  the 
only  religious  conception  they  were  equal  to,  and  their 
whole  ritual  economy  had  a  great  part  of  its  merit,  in  the 
stringent  closeness  of  it,  and  the  perpetual  girding  of  their 
practice  under  its  hard  austerities.  So  far  the  whole  econ¬ 
omy  was  to  be  displaced,  and  the  civil-law  Sabbath  was  to 
go  down  with  it.  But  the  more  ancient  Sabbath  belonged 
to  the  covenant  of  promise  itself,  and  had  the  same  kind 
of  freedom  and  genial  life  in  it  that  pertained,  in  Paul’s 
view,  to  the  whole  Abrahamic  order  in  religion.  We  can 
see  too,  for  ourselves,  that,  so  far  as  it  is  affirmed  in  the 
moral  code  of  the  decalogue,  in  distinction  from  the  civil 
law,  it  has  a  character  of  extreme  beauty  and  benignity. 
What  can  be  a  more  genial  token  for  God,  than  that  he  ap¬ 
point  such  an  institute  of  universal  rest  from  labor?  And 
what  could  evidence  a  more  beautiful  mercy  than  that  God 
should  take  the  part,  in  this  manner,  of  all  labor,  even  that 
of  servants  and  slaves,  and  indeed  of  the  laboring  beasts, 
the  oxen  and  the  asses,  asserting  his  protection  over  them 
(beautiful  lesson  of  mercy  to  animals  !)  even  against  the  self¬ 
ishness  of  their  owners,  and  allowing  them  to  have  a  res¬ 
pite  to  their  otherwise  endless  toils.  There  is,  in  fact,  no 
restrictive  word  in  the  commandment,  save  what  may  be 
felt  of  restriction  in  the  injunction  to  “keep  the  day  holy,” 
and  even  that  is  interpreted,  to  a  great  degree,  by  the  sim¬ 
ple  requirement  of  a  cessation  from  labor;  though  it  is, 
doubtless,  to  be  understood  that  the  day  is  duly  hallowed, 
only  by  a  careful  devotion  of  it  to  the  uses  of  religion.  Is 
there  any  thing  harsh  or  unduly  restrictive  in  such  a  day? 
Does  Christianity  itself  find  any  thing  to  accuse,  or  any 
want  of  benignity  in  it? 

There  is,  then,  no  pretext  of  authority  in  the  Scripture 


306 


PLAYS  AND  PASTIMES, 


for  making  the  Lord's  day,  or  Sunday,  a  Jewish  day  to 
children.  And  those  parents  who  make  it  a  point  of  fidel¬ 
ity  to  lay  it  on  their  children,  according  to  the  strict  police 

. 

regulations  of  the  Jewish  code,  would  be  much  more  ortho¬ 
dox,  if  they  went  farther  back,  and  took  up  conceptions  of 
the  day  some  thousands  of  years  older.  When  they  as¬ 
sume  that  every  thing  which  can  be  called  play  in  a  very 
young  child  is  wrong,  or  an  offense  against  religion,  they 
try,  in  fact,  to  make  Galatians  of  their  children;  incurring 
a  much  harsher  Christian  rebuke,  than  if  they  only  turned 
to  the  beggarly  elements  themselves,  and  laid  their  own 
souls  under  the  bondage.  What  can  a  poor  child  do,  that 
is  cut  off  thus,  for  a  whole  twenty-four  hours,  from  any  right 
to  vent  his  exuberant  feeling — impounded,  strictly,  in  the 
house  and  shut  up  to  catechism;  or  taken  to  church,  there 
to  fold  his  hands  and  sit  out  the  long  solemnities  of  the  wor¬ 
ship,  and  what  to  him  is  the  mysterious  lingo  of  preaching; 
then  taken  home  again  to  struggle  with  the  pent-up  fires, 
waiting  in  dreary  and  forlorn  vacancy,  till  what  are  called 
the  mercies  of  the  day  are  over  ?  What  conception  does  he 
get  of  religion,  by  such  kind  of  treatment,  but  that  it  comes 
to  the  world  as  foe  to  every  bright  thing  in  it;  a  burden,  a 
weariness,  a  tariff,  on  the  other  six  days  of  life  ? 

But  there  comes  in,  here,  a  grand  scripture  reason  for 
some  sort  of  restriction,  viz.:  that  restriction  is  the  neces¬ 
sary  first  stage  of  spiritual  training  everywhere.  Instead 
of  rushing  into  the  conclusion,  therefore,  as  many  parents 
do,  that  all  religious  observances  which  create  a  feeling  of 
restraint,  or  become  at  all  irksome  to  children,  are  of  course 
hurtful,  and  raise  a  prejudice  in  their  minds  against  religion, 
the  Scripture  boldly  asserts  the  fact  that  all  law  begins  to 
be  felt  as  a  bondage.  Law  and  gospel  have  a  natural  rela- 


HOLIDAYS  AND  SUNDAYS 


307 


tionship,  and  they  are  bound  together  everywhere,  by  a 
firm  interior  necessity.  It  is  so  in  the  family,  in  the  school, 
and  in  religion.  The  law  state  is  always  felt  to  be  a  bond¬ 
age,  and  the  restriction  is  irksome.  By  and  by,  the  good¬ 
ness  of  the  law,  and  of  them  by  whom  it  is  administered,  is 
fully  discovered,  and  the  obedience  that  began  as  restric¬ 
tion  merges  in  liberty.  The  parents  are  obeyed  with  such 
care,  as  anticipates  even  their  wishes;  the  lesson,  that  was 
a  task,  is  succeeded  by  that  free  application  which  sacrifices 
even  health  and  life  to  the  eagerness  of  study;  and  so  the 
law  of  God,  that  was  originally  felt  only  in  the  friction, 
rubbed  in  by  that  friction,  is  finally  melted  into  the  heart 
by  the  cross  of  Jesus,  and  becomes  the  soul’s  liberty  itself. 
It  is  no  fault  then  of  a  Sunday  that  it  is  felt,  in  some  proper 
degree,  as  a  restriction;  or  even  that  the  day  is  sometimes 
a  little  irksome  to  the  extreme  restlessness  of  children.  All 
restraint,  whether  in  the  family  or  the  school,  is  likely  to 
be  somewhat  irksome  at  the  first.  The  untamed  will,  the 
wild  impulse  of  nature,  always  begins  to  feel  even  principle 
itself  in  that  way  of  collision  with  it.  Nor  is  it  any  fault 
of  the  Sunday  observance,  that  it  has,  to  us,  the  character 
of  an  institute.  If  it  were  a  mere  law  of  natural  morality, 
we  might  observe  it  without  any  thought  of  God’s  will; 
but  if  we  receive  it  as  an  institute,  we  acknowledge  God’s 
will  in  it;  and  nothing  has  a  more  wholesome  effect  on  just 
this  account,  than  the  being  trained  to  an  habitual  surren¬ 
der  to  what  God  has  confessedly  enjoined  or  instituted  by 
his  will.  It  is  the  acknowledging  of  his  pure  authority, 
and  is  all  the  more  beneficial,  when  the  authority  is  felt  in 
a  somewhat  restrictive  way.  The  transition  too  is  easy 
from  this  to  a  belief  in  the  supernatural  facts  of  Christian¬ 
ity.  The  conscience  and  life  is  already  configured  to  such 


308  PLAYS  AND  PASTIMES, 

faith;  for  whatever  is  accepted  as  an  institution  of  God, 
is  accepted  as  the  supernatural  injunction  of  his  will. 

The  flash  judgments,  therefore,  of  many,  in  respect  to 
the  observance  of  Sunday,  are  not  to  be  hastily  accepted. 
We  are  not  to  read  the  prophet,  as  if  promising  that  the 
streets  of  the  city  shall  be  full  of  boys  and  girls,  on  the 
Lord’s  holy  day,  playing  in  the  streets  thereof;  or  as  if  that 
kind  of  license  were  necessary  to  clear  the  irksomeness  of  an 
oppressive  observance;  or  as  if  the  power  of  religion  were 
to  be  increased  by  removing  every  thing  in  it,  which  dis¬ 
turbs  the  natural  impatience  of  restraint.  Some  child  that 
was,  for  example,  now  grown  up  to  be  a  man — a  profligate 
it  may  be,  a  sworn  infidel,  a  hater  of  all  religion — laughs  at 
the  pious  Sundays  that  his  godly  mother  made  him  keep, 
and  testifies  to  the  bitter  annoyance  he  suffered  under  the 
irksome  and  superstitious  restrictions  thus  imposed  on  his 
childish  liberty.  Whereupon  some  liberalist  or  hasty  and 
superficial  disciple,  immediately  infers  that  all  Sunday  re¬ 
strictions  are  injurious,  and  only  raise  a  hostile  feeling  in  the 
child  toward  all  religion.  Whereas  it  may  be,  in  the  example 
cited,  for  such  are  not  very  infrequent,  that  the  child  was 
never  accustomed  to  restriction  at  any  other  time  as  he 
ought  to  have  been,  or  that  his  mother  was  too  self-indul¬ 
gent  to  exert  herself  in  any  such  way  for  his  religious  enter¬ 
tainment,  as  to  respite  and  soften  the  strictness  of  the  Sun¬ 
day  observance.  Perhaps  the  requirement  was  really  too 
restrictive,  or  perhaps  it  was  so  little  and  so  unevenly  re¬ 
strictive,  as  to  make  it  only  the  more  annoying.  Be  it  as 
it  may,  in  this  or  any  particular  example,  a  true  Sunday 
observance  needs  to  be  restrictive  in  a  certain  degree,  and 
needs  to  be  felt  in  that  way,  in  order  to  its  real  benefit. 
What  is  wanted  is  to  have  God’s  will  felt  in  it,  and  then  to 


HOLIDAYS  AND  SUNDAYS 


309 


have  it  reverently  and  willingly  accepted.  A  Sunday  turned 
into  a  holiday,  to  avoid  the  supposed  evil  of  restrictiveness, 
would  be  destitute  of  religious  value  for  just  that  reason. 

The  true  principle  of  Sunday  observance,  then,  appears 
to  be  this:  that  the  child  is  to  feel  the  day  as  a  restric¬ 
tion,  and  is  to  have  so  much  done  to  excite  interest,  and  miti¬ 
gate  the  severities  of  restriction,  that  he  will  also  feel  the 
true  benignity  of  God  in  the  day,  and  learn  to  have  it  as 
one  of  his  enjoyments.  When  the  child  is  very  young,  or 
just  passing  out  of  infancy,  it  will  be  enough  that,  with  some 
simple  teaching  about  God  and  his  day,  a  part  of  his  more 
noisy  playthings  are  taken  away;  or,  what  is  better  than 
this,  that  he  have  a  distinct  Sunday  set  of  playthings;  such 
as  may  represent  points  of  religious  history,  or  associate 
religious  ideas,  abundance  of  which  can  be  selected  from 
any  variety  store  without  difficulty;  then,  as  the  child  ad¬ 
vances  in  age,  so  as  to  take  the  full  meaning  of  language, 
or  so  as  to  be  able  to  read,  the  playthings  of  the  hands  and 
eyes  will  be  substituted  by  the  playthings  of  the  mind; 
which  also  will  be  such  as  connect  some  kind  of  religious 
interest — books  and  pictures  relating  to  scripture  subjects, 
a  practice  in  the  learning  and  beginning  to  sing  Christian 
hymns,  conversations  about  God  and  Christ,  such  as  bring 
out  the  beauty  of  God’s  feeling  and  character,  and  present 
Him,  not  so  much  as  a  frightful,  but  more  as  a  friendly  and 
attractive  being;  for  the  child  who  is  only  scared  by  God’s 
terrors  and  severities,  will  very  soon  lose  out  all  propor¬ 
tional  conceptions  of  him,  and  will  want  to  hear  of  him  no 
more.  Even  the  Sunday  itself  that  only  brings  him  to  mind 
will,  for  just  that  reason,  become  a  burden.  The  endeavor 
should  be  to  excite  a  welcome  interest  in  the  day  and  the 
subjects  it  recalls. 


310 


PLAYS  AND  PASTIMES, 


A 


J 


And  the  devices  that  may  be  used  are  endless.  The 
natural  history  of  Palestine,  the  rivers,  lakes,  mountains, 
every  city,  every  plain,  will  be  easily  associated  in  the  child’s 
memory,  with  the  events  and  characters,  and  religious 
transactions  of  the  sacred  history;  so  with  lessons  of  duty 
and  sentiments  of  piety.  For  such  uses,  an  embossed  map 
of  the  Holy  Land  would  be  invaluable  in  a  family  of  young 
children.  Here  are  marked  the  sites  of  towns  and  cities, 
and  the  face  of  the  ground  is  given  on  which  they  stood,  or 
stand.  Here  was  the  locality  of  a  battle,  on  this  moun¬ 
tain  or  slope,  or  in  this  plain,  or  by  this  river.  Here  dwelt 
some  patriarch,  or  prophet,  or  ministering  woman.  Look¬ 
ing  over  these  ranges  of  mountain,  through  these  valleys, 
and  across  these  lakes  and  plains,  questions  of  locality, 
geography,  prospect,  transaction,  miracle,  travel,  can  be 
raised  with  endless  variety,  such  as  will  sharpen  the  intel¬ 
lectual  curiosity,  and  the  sense  of  religion  together.  The 
whole  country  may  be  daguerreotyped  in  this  manner  on  the 
child’s  mind,  and  a  tenfold  interest  excited  in  every  event, 
whether  of  the  Old  or  New  Testament  history. 

The  day  itself  also  will  be  raising  fruitful  topics  of  in¬ 
quiry.  The  topics  of  public  preaching,  especially  those 
which  relate  to  Christ — Christ  the  child,  Christ  the  friend, 
brother,  bread,  way,  reconciling  grace — will  raise  interesting 
questions  in  the  child’s  mind,  and  he  will  be  delighted  if 
the  parent  can  make  out  a  good  and  lively  child’s  version  of 
them. 

Hearing  much  too  of  the  church,  and  the  communion  of 
saints  in  its  order  and  ordinances,  he  will  want  to  know 
more  exactly  what  the  church  is,  what  it  is  for,  and  who 
are  in  it.  And  when  he  is  rightly  informed  concerning  it, 
as  being  God’s  holy  family,  or  school,  in  which  all  the  mem- 


HOLIDAYS  AND  SUNDAYS 


311 


bers  are  disciples  or  learners  together,  and  how  Christ  him¬ 
self  dwells  in  it,  unseen,  as  the  teacher  and  head,  preserv¬ 
ing  its  order  from  age  to  age,  and  dispensing  gifts  of  life  and 
salvation  to  them  that  are  folded  with  him  in  it,  how  ten¬ 
derly  will  it  move  his  feeling,  and  with  what  gladness,  to 
hear  that  he  also  is  a  member,  whom  Christ  has  accepted 
beforehand,  to  grow  up  as  a  disciple  in  it.  His  feeling  will 
thus  begin  at  once  to  take  sides  with  it,  as  with  his  family 
itself,  and  he  will  be  drawn  along  into  the  spirit  and  cause 
of  it,  just  as  he  is  into  the  cause  of  his  family. 

Perhaps  too  he  will  have  witnessed  the  sacraments,  the 
holy  supper,  and  baptism  as  administered  to  infants,  and  he 
will  be  asking,  probably,  for  some  explanation  of  these. 
And  nothing  can  have  a  more  benign  effect  on' a  child’s  re¬ 
ligious  feeling  than  to  be  trained  to  a  genuine  faith  in  sacra¬ 
ments.  But,  in  order  to  this,  they  must  be  sacraments; 
that  is,  observances  appointed  by  God,  as  the  occasions  of 
a  special  faith  in  the  special  visitations  and  powers  he  en¬ 
gages  to  bestow  on  the  receivers. 

We  have  become  even  a  little  jealous  of  sacraments. 
Our  recoil  from  the  extravagances  of  priestly  magic  has 
been  carried  too  far.  We  keep  them  on  foot,  but  we  can 
scarcely  be  said  to  have  faith  in  them,  or  to  use  them.  The 
very  attitude  of  mind  they  require  is  what  we  want — want 
in  the  family,  want  in  the  church.  They  set  us  before  God 
in  just  the  way  to  receive  Him  best.  He  knew  exactly 
what  we  wanted,  and  therefore  gave  them  to  communicate 
his  own  divine  power  in  them.  Suppose  that  Carthage, 
in  giving  to  her  sons  an  oath  (sacr amentum)  of  eternal  hos¬ 
tility  to  Rome,  had  been  able  to  pledge  a  war-grace  also, 
going  into  battle  with  them  to  make  them  strong  before 
their  enemy  and  always  victorious,  how  eagerly  would  they 


312  PLAYS  AND  PASTIMES, 

have  taken  hold  of  it,  in  the  terrible  encounters  of  the 
field ! 

The  supper  then  is  to  be  a  sacrament  and  no  merely  monu¬ 
mental  affair,  as  if  it  were  a  coming  to  the  tomb  of  Jesus  to 
read  his  inscription;  but  it  is  to  be  an  occasion  where  he  is 
to  be  discerned,  manifested  as  discerned,  in  his  most  real, 
only  real,  presence;  dispensing  himself  and  his  reconciling 
peace  to  the  soul.  Explained  thus  to  the  child,  in  a  manner 
adapted  to  his  understanding,  it  is  also  to  be  added — “this 
is  for  you,  and  Christ  is  waiting  to  receive  you  and  bless 
you  in  it,  whenever  you  can  ask  it  truly  believing  that  he 
will,  according  to  the  faith  to  which  you  were  pledged  in 
your  baptism.”  I  see  no  objection  whatever  to  his  being 
taken  to  the  supper  casually,  whenever  his  childish  piety 
really  and  seriously  desires  it;  unless  some  opposing  scruples 
in  the  church,  or  the  minister,  should  make  it  unadvisable. 
Christ,  I  am  sure,  would  say — “Suffer  the  child  and  forbid 
him  not.” 

The  sacrament  of  baptism,  which  he  will  often  see  dis¬ 
pensed  to  infants — and  they  ought  always  to  be  presented 
in  a  public  way,  or  in  the  open  church,  for  that  purpose — 
can  be  handled,  in  these  Sunday  conversations,  with  still 
greater  effect.  This  preeminently  is  the  child’s  sacrament; 
signifying  no  regenerative  work  done  upon  the  child,  ( opus 
operation,)  but  the  promise  of  an  always  cherishing,  cleans¬ 
ing,  sealing  mercy,  in  which  he  is  to  be  grown,  as  one  that 
is  born  in  due  time;  and  which  he  is  always  to  believe  in, 
and  be  taking  hold  of,  in  all  his  childish  struggles  with  evil. 
And  he  is  to  have  it,  not  as  a  sacrament  dispensed  once  for 
all  and  ended,  but  as  a  perpetual  baptism,  always  distilling 
upon  him,  pledged  to  go  with  him,  overliving  his  many 
faults  and  falls,  and  operating  restoratively  when  it  can  not 


HOLIDAYS  AND  SUNDAYS 


313 


progressively,  assisting  repentances  when  it  can  not  growths 
in  good.  He  is  thus  to  be  always  putting  on  Christ,  as 
being  baptized  into  Christ,  and  to  live  in  the  washing  of 
regeneration  and  the  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  shed  on 
us  abundantly  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour.  Senti¬ 
ments  of  profoundest  reverence  for  his  baptism  are  to  be 
always  cherished  in  him.  He  is  to  have  it  as  the  one  pure 
thing  that  has  touched,  and  always  touches  him.  Family 
government,  the  family  prayers,  the  saintly  mother’s  kiss, 
every  thing  earthly,  has  the  touch  and  stain  of  evil;  but 
the  sacrament  of  God’s  pure  Spirit  has  not.  All  purest 
sympathy  of  God  is  here  with  him.  He  is  God’s  child,  and 
is  to  be  God’s  man.  Using  thus  his  baptism,  growing  up 
into  his  baptism,  obligation  will  be  serious,  but  never  op¬ 
pressive;  for  he.  breathes  for  giving  help,  and  has  it  for  his 
element. 

Now  all  these  subjects  of  the  Sunday  conversation — the 
church,  the  supper  and  baptism — being  institutes  of  God, 
like  the  day  itself,  chime  with  the  day,  and  go  to  keep  alive 
the  same  institutional  faith,  thus  to  keep  alive  the  faith  of 
a  supernatural  religion  and  make  it  habitual.  Nature 
being  all,  there  is  no  Sunday,  no  church,  no  sacraments. 
All  God’s  institutes  are  set  up  on  the  world  by  His  imme¬ 
diate  authority,  never  grown  out  of  nature  and  her  causes. 
And  it  is  just  here  that  the  childish  affinities  are  most  read¬ 
ily  taken  hold  of  by  religion.  Children  want  the  super¬ 
natural;  and  the  Lord’s  day,  used  in  this  manner,  or  en¬ 
livened  by  this  kind  of  teaching,  will  prepare  an  ingrown 
habit  of  faith,  and  will  never  annoy  them,  or  worry  them, 
by  its  reasonable  restrictions.  They  will  “  count  the  Sab¬ 
bath  a  delight,  and  the  holy  of  the  Lord  honorable,”  and 
will  have  beside,  all  the  blessings  of  the  prophet  that  fol- 


314  PLAYS  AND  PASTIMES,  HOLIDAYS  AND  SUNDAYS 

low.  Under  such  a  practice,  religion,  or  faith,  will  be  woven 
into  the  whole  texture  of  the  family  life,  and  the  house  will 
become  a  truly  Christian  home.  Nothing  will  be  remem¬ 
bered  so  fondly,  or  steal  upon  the  soul  with  such  a  glad¬ 
some,  yet  sacred,  feeling  afterward,  as  the  recollection  of 
these  dear  Sundays,  when  God’s  light  shone  so  brightly  into 
the  house,  and  made  a  holiday  for  childhood  so  nearly  divine. 


VII 


THE  CHRISTIAN  TEACHING  OF  CHILDREN 

“But  continue  thou  in  the  things  which  thou  hast  learned  and  hast 
been  assured  of,  knowing  of  whom  thou  hast  learned  them.” — II 
Timothy  iii.  14. 

This  exhortation  of  the  apostle  to  his  young  friend  Tim¬ 
othy,  is  the  more  remarkable  that  it  relates  to  his  training 
in  the  Old  Testament  scriptures,  which  were  the  only 
sacred  writings  known  at  the  time  of  his  childhood — “And 
that,  from  a  child,  thou  hast  known  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
which  are  able  to  make  thee  wise  unto  salvation,  through 
faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus.”  His  father  was  a  Greek, 
(Acts  xvi.  1,)  and  probably  an  unbeliever;  but  his  mother 
was  a  woman  of  such  piety,  that  she  omitted  nothing  in 
the  training  of  her  son,  and  the  apostle  speaks  of  her,  in  the 
same  epistle,  even  as  having  let  down  upon  him  a  kind  of 
piety  by  entail.  But  her  faithful  lessons — these  are  what 
he  is  now  calling  to  mind;  and  it  is  affecting  to  notice  that 
he  not  only  charges  it  on  him  to  remember  what  he  has 
learned  from  the  Scriptures,  because  they  are  God’s  word, 
but  also  to  value  the  same  things  the  more,  “knowing  of 
whom  he  has  learned  them”;  that  is,  from  his  gracious  and 
faithful  mother.  Under  cover  of  this  beautiful  example, 
as  it  appears  in  all  the  parties  concerned,  the  young  minis¬ 
ter  and  disciple,  the  godly  mother  and  her  instructions, 
the  apostle  and  his  congratulations,  you  will  perceive  that 
I  am  going  to  speak  of — 


315 


316 


THE  CHRISTIAN  TEACHING 


The  Christian  teaching  of  children. 

And  I  can  not  do  better  than  to  notice,  in  the  beginning, 
three  points  which  stand  upon  the  face  of  the  apostle’s  ex¬ 
hortation. 

1.  The  very  great  importance  of  this  teaching,  when 
rightly  dispensed.  It  is  not  indeed  the  first  duty  of  the 
parent,  for  other  duties  go  before,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
preceding  even  the  use  of  language.  Neither  is  it,  as  a  great 
many  parents  appear  to  assume,  a  matter  in  which  their 
religious  duties  to  their  children  are  principally  summed 
up*.  It  is  not  every  thing  to  teach,  or  verbally  instruct 
their  children,  least  of  all  to  indoctrinate  them  in  the  for¬ 
mulas  and  theoretic  principles  of  the  faith.  But  how  very 
great  importance  must  there  be  in  the  teaching,  when  an 
apostle,  setting  his  young  friend  in  charge  as  a  preacher 
of  the  gospel,  bids  him  continue  still  in  the  teachings  of  his 
godly  mother,  and  even  to  remember  them  for  her  sake. 
The  New  Testament  preacher  is  exhorted  still  to  be  an  Old 
Testament  son,  and  is  sent  forth,  in  the  power  of  the  ancient 
Scripture,  even  after  Christ  has  come.  And  just  so  it  will 
ever  be  true  of  the  ripest  and  tallest  of  God’s  saints,  who 
were  trained  by  His  truth  in  their  childhood,  that  however 
deep  in  their  intelligence  or  high  in  spiritual  attainments 
they  have  grown  to  be,  the  motherly  and  fatherly  word  is 
working  in  them  still;  and  is,  in  fact,  the  core  of  all  spiritual 
understanding  in  their  character. 

2.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  teaching  of  Timothy’s  mother 
was  scriptural — “And  that,  from  a  child,  thou  hast  known 
the  Holy  Scriptures.”  They  had,  as  far  as  we  have  been 
able  to  learn,  no  catechisms  in  that  day.  The  ten  com¬ 
mandments  and  certain  selected  Psalms,  were  probably 
the  scriptures  in  which  they  were  most  exercised,  and 


OF  CHILDREN 


317 


which  probably  Timothy  had  “learned/’  in  the  sense  of 
having  them  stored  in  his  memory.  And  there  is  this  very 
great  advantage  in  the  scriptural  teaching,  or  training, 
that  it  fills  the  mind  with  the  word  and  light  of  the  Spirit, 
and  not  with  any  mere  wisdoms  of  opinion.  And  there  is 
the  less  reason,  now,  for  going  out  of  the  divine  word  to  get 
lessons  for  the  teaching  of  children,  that  our  scripture  roll 
is  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  the  words  and  history  of 
Christ  himself.  In  a  right  use  of  the  Scripture,  thus  am¬ 
plified  by  the  gospel,  there  is  no  end  to  the  subjects  of  in¬ 
terest  that  may  be  raised.  The  words  are  simple,  the  facts 
are  vital,  the  varieties  of  locality,  dialogue,  incident,  char¬ 
acter,  and  topic,  endless. 

I  do  not  undertake  to  say  that  nothing  shall  be  taught 
which  is  not  in  the  words  of  the  Scripture.  But  it  must  be 
obvious  that  very  small  children  are  more  likely  to  be  wor¬ 
ried  and  drummed  into  apathy  by  dogmatic  catechisms, 
than  to  get  any  profit  from  them.  If  exercised  in  them  at 
all,  it  should  be  at  a  later  period,  when  their  intelligence  is 
considerably  advanced;  that  they  may,  at  least,  get  some 
shadow  of  meaning  in  them,  to  repay  the  labor  of  commit¬ 
ting  them  to  memory.  It  is  generally  supposed,  in  the  argu¬ 
ments  urged  for  a  training  in  catechism,  that  the  real  ad¬ 
vantage  to  be  gained  is  the  fastening  or  anchoring  of  the 
child  in  some  fixed  faith.  But  the  deplorable  fact  is,  that 
what  is  called  a  fastening  is  really  the  shutting  in,  or  encas¬ 
ing  of  the  soul,  in  that  particular  shell  of  opinion — the  train¬ 
ing  of  the  child  to  be  a  sectarian  before  he  is  a  Christian. 
Ilis  anchorage  in  some  Christian  belief,  which  is  certainly 
desirable,  would  be  accomplished  much  more  effectually, 
if  he  were  trained,  for  example,  to  recite  the  Apostles’  or 
the  Nicene  creed.  Here  he  does  not  merely  memorize,  but 


318 


THE  CHRISTIAN  TEACHING 


he  assents;  and,  what  is  more,  does  it  by  an  act  of  prac¬ 
tical  homage,  or  worship — a  confession.  And  then  what 
he  assents  to  is  no  matter  of  opinion,  or  speculative  theology, 
but  a  recitation  of  the  supernatural  facts  of  the  gospel, 
taken  simply  as  facts.  For  these  facts  are  intelligible  even 
to  a  very  young  child,  and  will  be  recited  always  with  the 
greater  interest,  that  the  recitation  is  itself  a  religious  act, 
or  confession. 

I  am  principally  concerned  here  with  the  case  of  very 
young  children,  not  with  such  as  are  farther  advanced  in 
age,  or  intelligence;  and  there  is  no  room  for  doubt,  in 
their  case,  whatever  may  be  decided  in  respect  to  others, 
that  the  teaching  of  Timothy’s  mother,  the  scripture  teach¬ 
ing,  is  to  be  preferred.  The  memorizing  of  the  ten  com¬ 
mandments  and  the  Lord’s  prayer,  followed  by  the  Apos¬ 
tles’  creed  and  the  simplest  Christian  hymns,  connected  with 
scripture  readings,  conversations,  and  discussions,  will  com¬ 
pose  a  body  of  teaching  specially  adapted  to  a  child,  and 
most  likely  to  make  him  wise  unto  salvation. 

3.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  most  genuine  teaching,  or 
only  genuine  teaching,  will  be  that  which  interprets  the 
truth  to  the  child’s  feeling  by  living  example,  and  makes 
him  love  the  truth  afterwards  for  the  teacher’s  sake.  It  is 
a  great  thing  for  a  child,  in  all  the  after  life,  to  “know  of 
whom”  he  learned  these  things,  and  to  see  a  godly  father, 
or  a  faithful  mother,  in  them.  No  truth  is  really  taught 
by  words,  or  interpreted  by  intellectual  and  logical  meth¬ 
ods;  truth  must  be  lived  into  meaning,  before  it  can  be 
truly  known.  Examples  are  the  only  sufficient  commen¬ 
taries;  living  epistles  the  only  fit  expounders  of  written 
epistles.  When  the  truly  Christian  father  and  mother 
teach  as  being  taught  of  God,  when  their  prayers  go  into 


OF  CHILDREN 


319 


their  lives  and  their  lives  into  their  doctrine,  when  their 
goodness  melts  into  the  memory,  and  heaven,  too,  breathes 
into  the  associated  thoughts  and  sentiments  to  make  a 
kind  of  blessed  memory  for  all  they  teach,  then  we  see  the 
beautiful  office  they  are  in,  fulfilled.  In  this  manner,  Tim¬ 
othy  was  supposed  to  have  a  complete  set  of  recollections 
from  his  mother  woven  into  his  very  feeling  of  the  truth 
itself/  It  was  more  true  because  it  had  been  taught  him 
by  her.  There  was  even  a  sense  of  her  loving  personality 
in  it,  by  which  it  always  had  been,  and  was  always  to  be, 
endeared.  On  the  other  hand,  it  will  always  be  found  that 
every  kind  of  teaching  in  religion,  which  adds  no  personal 
interest,  or  attraction  to  the  truth,  sheds  no  light  upon  it 
from  a  good  and  beautiful  life,  is  nearly  or  quite  worthless. 
And  here  is  the  privilege  of  a  genuinely  Christian  father 
and  mother  in  their  teaching,  that  they  pass  into  the  heart’s 
feeling  of  their  child,  side  by  side  with  God’s  truth,  to  be 
forever  identified  with  it,  and  to  be,  themselves,  lived  on 
and  over  with  it,  in  the  dear  eternity  it  gives  him. 

But  these  are  general  considerations,  which  it  is  suffi¬ 
cient  to  have  suggested  without  further  dwelling  upon  them. 
There  are  yet  a  great  many  subordinate  and  particular 
points,  of  a  more  promiscuous  character,  to  which  also  I 
must  call  your  attention.  And  I  deem  it  here  a  matter  of 
consequence  to  make  out,  first  of  all,  a  somewhat  extended 
roll  of  things,  which  are  not  to  be  taught;  for  so  many  things 
are  taught  which  are  not  true  for  any  body,  and  so  many 
which  are  only  theologically  true  for  minds  in  full  maturity 
— to  all  others  meaningless  and  repulsive — that  many  a 
child  is  fatally  stumbled  in  religion,  just  because  of  his  teach¬ 
ing. 

i 


320 


THE  CHRISTIAN  TEACHING 


First  of  all,  then,  children  are  not  to  be  taught  that  they 
were  regenerated  in  their  baptism.  That  will  only  convert 
the  rite  into  a  superstition,  and  put  the  child  in  a  totally 
false  position,  where  he  will  rest  his  Christian  title  on  a 
mere  outward  transaction  already  past,  and  what  is  even 
worse,  on  a  function  of  priestly  magic.  Furthermore,  if 
the  child  should  turn  out,  when  he  is  fully  grown,  to  be  a 
totally  reckless  and  profane  person,  having  no  pretense,  or 
even  semblance  of  religious  character,  it  will  now  be  dis¬ 
covered  to  him  that  his  regeneration  meant  nothing,  had 
no  practical  effect  or  value  and  since  there  is  no  second  bap¬ 
tismal  regeneration,  it  will  only  be  left  him  to  have  neither 
any  care  for  the  old,  or  hope  of  a  new  that  is  better.  In¬ 
deed  he  must  now  be  saved,  for  aught  that  appears,  with¬ 
out  regeneration;  which  makes  a  very  awkward  kind  of 
gospel.  If  the  child  could  be  taught  that  his  baptism  sig¬ 
nifies  regeneration;  supposing  a  pledge  on  God’s  part  of 
the  necessary  grace,  and  so  the  fact  presumptive,  that  the 
faith  and  careful  training  of  his  parents  shall  be  so  far  is¬ 
sued  in  a  gracious  character,  that  his  very  first  putting 
forth  of  good  endeavor,  (having  been  divinely  prepared,) 
shall  be  crowned  with  Christian  evidence,  it  would  be  well. 
But  no  young  child  can  grasp  such  a  conception  evenly 
enough  to  hold  it.  The  most  that  can  be  said  to  him, 
therefore,  of  his  baptism,  is  that  God  gave  it  to  his  parents 
and  to  himself,  as  a  pledge  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  all  needed 
help,  that  he  may  grow  up  into  good,  as  a  regenerated  man. 

As  little  are  young  children  to  be  taught  that  they  are  of 
course  unregenerated.  This,  with  many,  is  even  a  fixed 
point  of  orthodoxy,  and  of  course  they  have  no  doubt  of  it. 
They  put  their  children  on  the  precise  footing  of  heathens, 
and  take  it  for  granted  that  they  are  to  be  converted  in  the 


OF  CHILDREN 


321 


same  manner.  But  they  ought  not  to  be  in  the  same  condi¬ 
tion  as  heathens.  Brought  up  in  their  society,  under  their 
example,  baptized  into  their  faith  and  upon  the  ground  of 
it,  and  bosomed  in  their  prayers,  there  ought  to  be  seeds  of 
gracious  character  already  planted  in  them;  so  that  no  con¬ 
version  is  necessary,  but  only  the  development  of  a  new 
life  already  begun.  Why  should  the  parents  cast  away 
their  privilege,  and  count  their  child  an  alien  still  from  God’s 
mercies  ? 

Again,  you  are  not  to  teach  your  children  that  they  need, 
of  course,  to  be  regenerated,  because  they  fail  in  obedience, 
show  bad  tempers,  and  display  manifold  other  faults.  Have 
you  no  faults  yourselves?  Do  you  then  spring  it  as  a  con¬ 
clusion  against  yourselves,  that  you  are  unregenerate  per¬ 
sons,  or  do  you  take  hold  of  God’s  help,  with  new  earnest¬ 
ness  and  confidence,  that  you  may  get  strength  to  overcome 
your  faults  and  be  clear  of  them?  Shortcomings,  faults, 
casual  disinclinations  of  feeling,  are  bad  signs,  such  as 
ought  to  waken  distrust,  but  they  are  not,  of  course,  conclu¬ 
sive  evidences. 

As  little  are  you  to  teach  them  that  they  are  certainly 
unregenerate,  or  without  piety,  because  they  are  light  in 
many  of  their  demonstrations,  full  of  play,  abounding  in 
frolicsome  gayeties.  Which  is  worse  and  farthest  from  God, 
these  innocent  exuberances  of  life,  or  the  covetous,  over¬ 
caring,  overworking,  enviously  plotting,  sobriety  of  their 
parents  ? 

Again  you  are  never  to  teach  your  very  young  children 
that  they  are  too  young  to  be  good,  or  to  be  really  Chris¬ 
tian.  Never  allow  them  to  see  that  you  expect  them  to  be 
pious  only  at  some  future  day,  when  they  are  older.  What 
you  despair  of,  or  assume  to  be  no  possibility  for  them,  they 


322 


THE  CHRISTIAN  TEACHING 


certainly  will  not  attempt,  and  the  discouragement  of  good, 
thus  thrown  upon  them,  may  be  even  fatal  to  their  future 
character.  Draw  them  rather  into  your  own  exercises,  tak¬ 
ing  always  for  granted,  that  they  will  be  with  you.  Promise 
them  a  common  part  with  you  in  God’s  friendship,  and  as 
your  love  to  God  makes  you  good  to  them,  careful  of  them, 
tender  toward  them,  show  them  how  it  will  make  them  good 
to  one  another  and  to  you,  and  all  good  and  happy  to¬ 
gether. 

Again,  do  not  teach  them  that  they  can  never  pray,  or 
do  any  thing  acceptable  to  God,  till  after  they  are  converted 
or  regenerated.  This,  with  many,  is  a  great  point  of  or¬ 
thodoxy,  and  I  would  not  speak  of  it  with  severity,  because 
it  is  a  very  natural  mistake;  and  yet  it  is  one  of  the  most 
hurtful  delusions,  short  of  real  infidelity,  that  can  be  put 
into  language.  It  is  not  only  not  true  for  children,  but  it 
is  not  true  for  anybody,  and  is,  in  fact,  a  kind  of  barricade 
before  the  heavenly  gate  for  everybody,  still  outside.  It 
is  very  true  that  no  one  can  pray,  or  do  any  thing  accept¬ 
ably,  to  God,  as  being  and  remaining  unconverted,  unre¬ 
generated;  but  that  is  a  very  different  thing  from  show¬ 
ing  that  no  one  can  pray,  or  do  any  thing  acceptably  till 
after  they  are  converted,  or  regenerated.  The  difference 
is  just  as  wide  as  between  all  good  possibility  and  none 
whatever.  God  is  ready  to  hear  every  child’s  prayer, 
every  man’s  prayer,  calls  him  to  come  and  be  heard  for  all 
he  wants,  only  let  him  pray  as  coming  to  be  converted,  or 
born  of  the  Spirit,  in  his  prayer.  If  the  prayers  of  the 
wicked  are  an  abomination,  as  they  certainly  are,  let  them 
come  to  cease  being  wicked,  and  be  made  right  with  God. 
Can  not  a  wicked  man  become  right?  and  at  what  time 
and  where^  better  than  when  God  is  hearing  and  helping 


OF  CHILDREN 


323 


his  prayer?  His  very  prayer  will  be  a  praying  out  of 
wickedness  into  right.  But  when  he  can  not  think,  work, 
pray;  can  not  do  any  thing  acceptably,  till  after  he  is  born 
of  the  Spirit,  that  word  after  fences  him  back,  shuts  him 
up  in  his  sin,  there  to  bide  his  time.  What  multitudes  of 
children  have  been  shut  away  from  the  kingdom  of  God, 
by  this  one  misconception  of  piously  intended  orthodoxy. 

The  mistake  of  teaching  is  scarcely  less  fatal,  when  the 
child  is  put  to  the  doing  of  good  works,  and  the  making  up 
of  a  character  in  the  self-regulating  way.  That  kind  of 
duty  is  so  legal  and  painful,  and  the  poor  child  will  be  so 
often  floored  by  his  failures  in  it,  that  he  will  not  continue 
long.  A  kind  of  despair  will  come  upon  him  in  a  short  time, 
and  religion  itself  will  take  on  a  hard  impossible  look,  that 
is  even  repulsive.  Nothing  will  draw  the  child  onward  in 
ways  of  piety,  but  the  sense  of  forgivenesses,  helps,  felt 
sympathies  of  grace  and  love.  Salvation  by  faith,  is  the  only 
kind  of  religion  that  a  child  can  support.  If  there  is  no  lad¬ 
der  to  heaven  but  a  ladder  of  will-works  and  observances, 
he  will  not  be  climbing  it  long.  Where  Luther  fell  off  and 
lay  groaning,  infant  steps  will  not  persist. 

It  is  a  great  mistake,  too,  and  a  great  Christian  wrong, 
under  salvation  by  faith,  to  be  always  showing  children 
what  a  hard,  dry  service  the  Christian  life  must  be.  A 
great  many  parents  do  this  unthinkingly,  because  it  is  just 
so  to  them.  Where  there  is  a  real  living  faith,  and  chil¬ 
dren  believe  most  easily,  cheerfulness,  brightness,  liberty, 
joy,  are  the  element  of  life  itself.  But  if  the  parent  is 
down  in  the  lowest  grades  of  possible  devotion,  worried 
and  not  blessed  by  his  piety,  galled  and  not  comforted;  if 
the  children  hear  him  mourning  always  in  his  prayer,  and 
confessing  shortcomings  and  defeats  and  poverty  enough 


324 


THE  CHRISTIAN  TEACHING 


to  ungospel  all  the  gospel  promises,  it  should  not  be  won¬ 
derful  that  they  are  not  particularly  drawn  to  that  kind  of 
piety. 

These,  now,  are  some  of  the  things  which  are  not  to  be 
taught,  but  carefully  avoided  in  the  training  of  children. 
There  are  a  great  many  other  things  which  are  not  to  be 
taught,  for  the  reason  that  they  can  not  be  sufficiently  ap¬ 
prehended,  and  will  only  confound  the  understanding  in¬ 
stead  of  giving  it  light.  These  are  to  be  taught,  not  for¬ 
mally  or  theologically,  but  implicitly,  in  a  kind  of  child’s 
version,  wThich  the  confessions  commonly  do  not  give. 
Thus  depravity  in  Adam,  the  fall  of  the  race,  the  atonement 
by  Christ  in  any  view  that  makes  it  a  ground  of  forgive¬ 
ness,  regeneration  itself  as  a  metaphysically  defined  change 
in  character — none  of  these  can  be  taught  as  a  doctrine  for 
young  children.  And  yet  they  can  all  be  taught  implicitly. 
Thus  we  may  represent  to  children  that  we  are  all  sinners, 
and  that  God  is  displeased  with  us  whenever  we  do  or 
think  what  is  wrong;  that  we  want  a  better  and  a  clean 
heart,  so  that  we  shall  love  to  do  what  is  right,  and  that 
Christ  came  down  into  the  world  to  give  it  to  us;  that  when 
we  feel  sorry  for  wrong  he  loves  to  forgive  us,  and  that 
when  we  feel  weak  and  are  much  tempted  he  will  help  us, 
hearing  our  prayer,  and  coming  to  us  by  his  Spirit,  to  give 
us  strength.  Meantime  we  must  not  omit  teaching  that 
Jesus  had  a  most  dear  love  to  children,  took  them  in  his 
arms,  blessed  them,  loved  them  even  the  more  tenderly 
because  of  the  bad  world  into  which  they  are  come;  and 
that  breathing  his  own  love  into  them,  he  was  able  to  say 
that  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Proceeding  in  this 
manner,  let  the  call  be  to  the  child  to  become  good,  and  to 


OF  CHILDREN 


325 


be  always  trusting  Christ  to  make  him  so,  and  he  will  get 
the  force,  implicitly,  of  a  whole  gospel,  in  this  very  simple 
and  summary  version. 

While  the  whole  teaching  centers  at  this  point,  the  mind 
of  the  child  will  not  be  wearied,  of  course,  by  a  continual 
reiteration  of  the  same  very  simple  matter,  but  it  will  be 
led  about,  into  free  ranges  and  excursions,  among  the  facts 
and  very  dramatic  incidents  of  the  Scripture  history.  Lit¬ 
tle  debates  will  be  raised  about  duties  in  common  matters; 
characters  will  be  held  up  for  approbation,  or  to  be  con¬ 
demned.  The  matters  of  creation,  from  the  sky  down¬ 
ward,  will  come  into  notice,  and  be  used  to  show  God’s 
wisdom  and  greatness.  And  so  there  will  be  a  rotary  move¬ 
ment  of  inquiry  and  teaching,  all  round  the  great  central 
point  of  being  good,  and  the  readiness  of  Christ  to  help  us 
in  it. 

Due  care  will  be  taken  also  not  to  thrust  religious  sub¬ 
jects  on  the  child,  when  he  is  excited  by  other  things,  in  a 
manner  to  make  it  unwelcome.  His  times  of  thought  and 
appetite  must  be  watched.  Play  with  him  when  he  wants 
to  play,  teach  him  when  he  wants  to  be  taught.  Untimely 
intrusions  of  religion  will  only  make  it  odious — the  child 
can  not  be  crammed  with  doctrine. 

Children  often  break  upon  their  parents  with  very  tough 
questions,  and  questions  that  wear  a  considerable  look¬ 
ing  towards  infidelity.  It  requires,  in  fact,  but  a  simple 
child  to  ask  questions  that  no  philosopher  can  answer. 
Parents  are  not  to  be  hurried  or  flurried  in  such  cases,  and 
make  up  extempore  answers  that  are  only  meant  to  confuse 
the  child,  and  consciously  have  no  real  verity.  It  is  equally 
bad,  if  the  child  is  scolded  for  his  freedom;  for  what  re¬ 
spect  can  he  have  for  the  truth,  when  he  may  not  so  much 


326 


THE  CHRISTIAN  TEACHING 


as  question  where  it  is  ?  Still  worse,  if  the  child’s  question 
is  taken  for  an  evidence  of  his  superlative  smartness,  and 
repeated  with  evident  pride  in  his  hearing.  In  all  such 
cases,  a  quiet  answer  should  be  given  to  the  child’s  ques¬ 
tion  where  it  can  easily  be  done,  and  where  it  can  not,  some 
delay  should  be  taken;  wherein  it  will  be  confessed  that 
not  even  his  parents  know  every  thing.  Or,  sometimes, 
if  the  question  is  one  that  plainly  can  not  be  answered  by 
anybody,  occasion  should  be  taken  to  show  the  child  how 
little  we  know,  and  how  many  things  God  knows  which  are 
too  deep  for  us — how  reverently,  therefore,  we  are  to  sub¬ 
mit  our  mind  to  his,  and  let  him  teach  us  when  he  will, 
what  is  true.  It  is  a  very  great  thing  for  a  child,  to  have 
had  the  busy  infidel,  lurking  in  his  questions,  early  instructed 
in  regard  to  the  necessary  limits  of  knowledge,  and  accus¬ 
tomed  to  a  simple  faith  in  God’s  requirement,  where  his 
knowledge  fails. 

Observe  also,  at  just  this  point,  the  immense  advantage 
that  a  Christian  parent  has  in  Jesus  Christ,  as  regards  the 
religious  teaching  of  his  children.  I  speak  here  of  the  fact 
that  all  truth  finds  in  him  the  concrete  form.  Truth  is 
not  less  really  incarnate  in  him,  than  God.  Indeed  he  testi¬ 
fies,  himself,  that  he  is  the  truth.  And  he  is  so,  not  merely 
in  the  sense  that  he  parabolizes  the  truth,  and  gets  it  thus 
into  human  conditions  or  analogies,  but  that  his  own  per¬ 
son  also  and  life  are  the  eternal  form  of  truth;  that  he  lives 
it,  acts  it  forth,  groans  it  in  his  Gethsemane,  sheds  it  from 
his  veins  in  the  bleeding  of  his  cross.  You  may  take  your 
children  along  therefore,  through  his  childhood,  into  his 
ministries  of  healing,  on  to  his  death-scene  itself,  and  it  will 
be  as  if  you  led  them  through  a  gallery,  where  all  divinest, 
most  life-giving  truth  is  pictured.  No  abstractions  will  be 


OF  CHILDREN 


327 


wanted,  no  difficult  reaches  of  comprehension  required; 
you  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  show  them  Jesus  as  he  is, 
and  the  Great  Teaching  will  be  in  them — all  that  is  needed 
as  the  vital  bread  of  their  intelligence,  and  heart,  and  char¬ 
acter.  The  blessed  child’s  doctrine  of  the  world  is  Christ. 
Have  it  then  as  your  privilege  to  be  always  unfolding  your 
child’s  understanding  and  spiritual  nature  by  that  which 
will  be  life  and  healing  to  both;  even  Jesus  Christ,  the  Word 
of  the  Father’s  glory.  Converse  much  of  him  and  about 
him,  make  him  familiar,  and  it  will  be  strange  if  you  do  not 
find  that  both  your  conversation  and  theirs  is  in  heaven, 
where  he  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  God. 

And  of  this  you  will  be  the  more  certain  if  you  teach 
Christ  not  by  words  only,  but  by  so  living  as  to  make  your 
own  life  the  interpreter  of  his.  There  is  no  feebler  and 
more  unpractical  conception,  than  that  children  are  faith¬ 
fully  taught,  when  they  are  abundantly  lectured.  If  you 
will  put  in  Christ,  you  must  put  him  on.  There  is  no  such 
gospel  for  them,  as  that  which  flavors  your  own  conduct, 
and  fills  your  personal  atmosphere  with  the  Christly 
aroma. 

At  the  same  time  it  should  be  the  constant  endeavor 
with  children,  to  make  the  subject  of  religion  an  open  sub¬ 
ject,  and  keep  it  so,  never  to  be  otherwise.  Nothing  is 
wider  of  dignity,  or  more  mischievous  in  its  effects,  than  the 
remarkable  shyness  of  religious  conversation  in  most  Chris¬ 
tian  families.  It  argues  either  some  great  neglect  of  the 
parents,  in  which  they  have  let  the  subject  fall  out  of  range 
as  a  subject  not  to  be  named,  or  else  it  shows  that,  in  trying 
to  make  it  an  open  subject,  so  much  of  cant  or  untimely 
exhortation  has  been  mixed  with  it,  as  to  make  it  unwel¬ 
come.  Rightly  conceived,  there  is  no  subject  of  so  great 


328 


THE  CHRISTIAN  TEACHING 


interest  and  such  inexhaustible  freshness,  as  that  which 
pertains  to  the  soul  and  the  future  life.  Good  conversation, 
too,  upon  it,  in  the  house,  is  better  than  sermons.  Why 
then  should  a  Christian  family,  where  every  other  subject 
is  welcome,  taboo  this,  requiring  it  to  pass  in  silence,  as  if 
it  were  in  fact  the  forbidden  fruit  of  their  intelligence? 

But  I  must  speak,  in  closing,  of  what  appears  to  be  a 
somewhat  general  misconception,  as  respects  the  aim  of 
Christian  teaching  in  the  case  of  very  young  children.  Ac¬ 
cording  to  the  view  I  am  here  maintaining,  it  is  not  their 
conversion,  in  the  sense  commonly  given  to  that  term. 
That  is  a  notion  which  belongs  to  the  scheme  that  makes 
nothing  of  baptism  and  the  organic  unity  of  the  house;  that 
looks  upon  the  children  as  being  heathens,  or  aliens,  re¬ 
quiring,  of  course,  to  be  converted.*  But  according  to  the 
scheme  here  presented,  they  are  not  heathens,  or  aliens; 
but  they  are  in  and  of  the  household  of  faith,  and  their 
growing  up  is  to  be  in  the  same.  Parents  therefore,  in  the 
religious  teaching  of  their  children,  are  not  to  have  it  as  a 
point  of  fidelity  to  press  them  into  some  crisis  of  high  ex¬ 
perience,  called  conversion.  Their  teaching  is  to  be  that 
which  feeds  a  growth,  not  that  which  stirs  a  revolution. 
It  is  to  be  nurture,  presuming  on  a  grace  already  and  al¬ 
ways  given,  and,  for  just  that  reason,  jealously  careful  to 
raise  no  thought  of  some  high  climax  to  be  passed.  For 
precisely  here  is  the  special  advantage  of  a  true  sacramen¬ 
tal  nurture  in  the  promise,  that  it  does  not  put  the  child 
on  passing  a  crisis,  where  he  is  thrown  out  of  balance  not 
unlikely,  and  becomes  artificially  conscious  of  himself,  but 
it  leaves  him  to  be  always  increasing  his  faith,  and  reach¬ 
ing  forward,  in  the  simplest  and  most  dutiful  manner,  to 
become  what  God  is  helping  him  to  be.  On  this  point  Dr. 


A 


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jl 


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1/1 


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OF  CHILDREN  329 

Tiersch  says,  with  very  great  insight,  both  of  the  gospel 
and  of  children — 

“  It  is  certainly  not  difficult  to  bring  a  child  into  a  con¬ 
dition  of  emotion  and  anxiety,  by  representations  of  nat¬ 
ural  corruption,  of  the  judgment,  and  of  the  influence  of 
the  enemy;  and  to  fill  him  with  doubts  of  his  own  salvation, 
thereby  moving  him  to  any  thing  that  may  be  desired.  It 
is  possible  that  by  these  means,  deep  experiences  of  the  com¬ 
munion  of  the  soul  have  been  brought  to  light.  But  these 
are  consequences  that  should  rather  be  objects  of  our  fear 
than  of  our  rejoicing.  For  here  comes  in  the  worst  of  all 
dangers,  the  early  wasting  of  such  impressions  and  experi¬ 
ences,  and  a  creeping  in  of  untruth,  whilst  the  power  van¬ 
ishes  and  the  forms  of  speech  remain.  For  both  the  most 
delicate  and  the  most  solemn  experiences  become,  after  this 
method,  objects  of  continual  reflection  and  conversation, 
under  which,  at  last,  solemn  earnestness,  as  well  as  all  deli¬ 
cacy,  is  destroyed,  and  there  remains  either  a  continual 
self-deception,  with  the  semblance  of  the  reality  of  godli¬ 
ness,  or  a  gnawing  consciousness  of  an  increasing  untruth- 
fulness,  and  of  an  inner  unfruitfulness  beneath  a  mass  of 
phrases.”  * 

It  is  a  delicate  matter  for  children  to  navigate  in  this 
rough  sea  of  conversional  tossings,  where  the  stormy  wind 
lifteth  up  the  waves,  and  they  go  up  to  the  heaven,  and  go 
down  again  to  the  depth,  and  their  soul  is  melted  because 
of  trouble.  There  is,  for  the  little  ones,  a  more  quiet  way 
of  induction.  Show  them  how  to  be  good,  and  then,  when 
they  fail,  how  God  will  help  them  if  they  ask  him  and  trust 
in  him  for  help.  In  this  manner  they  will  be  passing  little 
conversion-like  crises  all  the  time.  Rejoice  with  them  and 


*  Christian  Family,  p.  133. 


330 


THE  CHRISTIAN  TEACHING 


for  them  as  they  do,  only  do  not  put  them  on  the  conscious¬ 
ness,  in  themselves,  of  what  you  seem  to  see.  Let  them  be 
accustomed  to  it  as  a  fact  of  experience  that  they  are  happy 
when  they  are  right,  and  are  right  when  God  helps  them 
to  be,  and  that  he  always  helps  them  to  be  when  they  put 
their  trust  in  him.  The  Spirit  of  God  is  nowhere  so  dove- 
like  as  he  is  in  his  gentle  visitations  and  hoverings  of  mercy 
over  little  children. 

What  is  wanted  is,  to  train  them  by  a  corresponding 
gentleness,  and  keep  them  in  the  molds  of  the  Spirit.  No 
spiritual  tornado  is  wanted  that  will  finish  up  the  parental 
duties  in  a  day;  but  there  is  to  be  a  most  tender  and  wise 
attention,  watching  always  for  them,  and,  at  every  turn  or 
stage  of  advance,  contributing  what  is  wanted;  enjoying 
their  bright  and  happy  times  of  goodness  and  peace  with 
them,  helping  their  weak  times,  drawing  them  out  of  their 
discouragements,  and  smoothing  away  their  moods  of  re¬ 
coil  and  bitterness;  contriving  always  to  supply  the  kind  of 
power  that  is  wanted,  at  the  time  when  it  is  wanted.  Very 
young  children  religiously  educated,  it  will  be  remembered 
by  almost  every  grown  up  person,  have  many  times  of  great 
religious  tenderness,  when  they  are  drawn  apart  in  thought¬ 
fulness  and  prayer.  The  effort  should  be  to  make  these 
little,  silent  pentecosts  and  gentle  openings  God-ward  seal¬ 
ing-times  of  the  Spirit,  and  have  the  family  always  in  such 
keeping,  as  to  be  a  congenial  element  for  such  times;  and 
to  suffer  no  possible  hindrance,  or  opposing  influence,  even 
should  they  come  and  go  unobserved.  Under  such  kind 
of  keeping  and  teaching,  God,  who  is  faithful  to  all  his  op¬ 
portunities,  as  men  are  not,  will  be  putting  his  laws  into  the 
mind  and  writing  them  in  the  heart,  and  the  prophet’s  idea 
will  be  fulfilled  to  the  letter;  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  go 


OF  CHILDREN 


331 


calling  the  children  to  Christ,  and  saying,  Know  the  Lord; 
for  they  will  know  him,  every  one,  the  least  as  the  greatest, 
and  the  greatest  as  the  least,  each  by  a  knowledge  proper 
to  his  age. 


VIII 


FAMILY  PRAYERS 

“And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day,  I  will  hear,  saith  the  Lord,  I 
will  hear  the  heavens,  and  they  shall  hear  the  earth,  and  the  earth  shall 
hear  the  corn,  and  the  wine,  and  the  oil,  and  they  shall  hear  Jezreel.” 
— Hose  a  ii.  21-22. 

By  this  very  elaborate  and  poetically  ingenious  figure, 
the  prophet  appears  to  be  giving  a  contrived  representation 
of  the  fact,  that  when  God  brings  in  the  promised  day  of 
his  universal  reign  in  the  earth,  there  will  be  a  grand  con- 
vergency  of  causes  to  prepare  it,  and,  like  so  many  concur¬ 
rent  prayers,  to  make  common  suit  for  it  before  Him.  Thus 
he  figures  the  world  as  being  the  beautiful  valley  called 
Jezreel,  which  is  the  garden,  so  to  speak,  of  the  land.  And 
it  is  to  be  as  when  the  people  of  Jezreel  get  their  harvest, 
by  having  every  thing  in  a  train  of  concurrent  agency  to 
prepare  it — they  make  petition  by  their  careful  tillage  to 
the  corn,  the  grapes,  and  olives,  that  they  will  grow  apace; 
these,  in  turn,  make  suit  to  the  earth  to  give  them  nutri¬ 
ment;  this  again  hears  them,  and  lifts  its  petition  to  the 
heavens,  asking  rain  and  dew;  whereupon,  last  of  all,  the 
heavens  hand  up  the  prayers  to  God,  to  furnish  them  water, 
and  let  them  shed  it  down;  which  petition  he  graciously 
hears,  and  the  harvest  follows.  So  he  conceives  it  will  be, 
as  the  harvest  of  the  world  approaches.  It  will  be  as  if  all 
things  were  put  striving  together,  and  a  prayer  were  going 
up  for  it  through  all  the  concurrent  circles  of  Providence. 
God’s  counsel  and  kingdom  are  constructing  always  a  per- 

332 


FAMILY  PRAYERS 


333 


feet  harmony,  by  their  convergence  on  his  perfect  end. 
Then,  as  the  perfect  end  is  neared,  and  the  harmony  with  it 
grows  more  complete,  it  will  be  as  if  more  things  were  con¬ 
curring  in  it  and  asking  for  it,  and  prayer,  falling  in  as  a 
cause  among  causes,  will  have  them  all  praying  with  it,  or 
handing  up  its  request.  In  which  we  may  see  what  holds 
good  of  all  prayer,  and  how  or  by  what  law  it  prevails.  In 
one  view,  the  whole  future  is  prayed  in  by  the  whole  pres¬ 
ent,  being  such  a  future  as  the  whole  present  demands. 
The  more  things,  therefore,  prayer  can  get  into  harmony 
with  itself  in  its  request,  the  more  likely  it  is  to  prevail;  and 
the  more  alone  it  is,  and  the  more  things  it  has  opposite  to 
it,  in  the  field  of  causes,  the  less  likely  it  is  to  prevail — even 
as  Adam  had  less  hope  of  success  in  praying  for  Cain,  that 
the  blood  of  Abel  was  crying  to  God  against  him  from  the 
ground. 

All  prayer  being  under  this  general  condition,  family 
prayer  will  be  of  course;  and  of  this  I  now  propose  to  speak. 
I  choose  to  handle  the  subject  in  this  form,  in  the  convic¬ 
tion  that  the  prayers  of  families  are  so  often  defeated  by 
the  want  of  any  such  concert  in  the  aims,  plans,  tempers, 
works,  and  aspirations  of  the  house,  as  is  necessary  to  a 
common  suit  before  God;  in  other  words,  because  the  pray¬ 
ers,  commonly  so  called,  are  defeated  by  the  suit  of  so  many 
causes  contrary  to  them. 

We  sometimes  use  the  terms  family  worship  and  family 
prayers ,  without  any  reference  at  all  to  their  spiritual  ac¬ 
ceptance  with  God,  or  to  any  gifts  and  benefits  to  be  be¬ 
stowed,  in  the  way  of  answer  to  such  prayers.  We  speak 
of  the  worship,  or  the  prayers,  as  a  kind  of  morning  obser¬ 
vance;  a  religious  formality  that  is  to  have  its  value,  under 
the  laws  of  drill  and  habitual  repetition;  good  therefore, 


334 


FAMILY  PRAYERS 


in  that  sense,  to  be  kept  a  going,  and  not  expected  to  be 
good  on  the  high  ground  of  faith  and  living  intercourse  with 
God.  That  it  is  to  be  the  opening  of  heaven  and  the  keep¬ 
ing  of  it  open  to  the  family,  under  the  conditions  of  prevail¬ 
ing  prayer,  is  either  not  commonly  supposed,  or  not  made 
a  point  of  practical  endeavor.  The  benefits  thought  of  are 
to  be  such  as  will  come  of  mere  observance  itself,  and  the 
religious  reverence  impressed  by  it. 

Now  that  some  such  kind  of  benefit  may  be  expected  to 
follow,  I  am  not  about  to  question.  Any  such  external  ob¬ 
servance,  kept  up  in  the  family,  must  probably  beget  a 
deeper  sense  of  religion,  and  prepare  all  the  members  to  a 
readier  admission  of  the  great  principles  of  faith,  and  spir¬ 
itual  devotion  to  God.  And  in  that  view,  the  observance 
of  family  worship  is  a  matter  of  such  consequence  in  a 
family,  that  the  parent,  who  confessedly  is  not  a  Christian 
person,  ought  still  to  feel  it  incumbent  on  him  to  maintain 
that  observance.  And  if  such  were  the  persons  with  whom 
I  am  dealing  in  this  discussion,  I  should  urge  it  upon  them, 
as  a  matter  indispensable,  and  never  to  be  omitted.  But 
my  subject  is  different.  I  am  addressing  Christian  parents, 
on  the  subject  of  the  Christian  training  of  their  children, 
showing  it  to  be  the  same  thing  as  a  training  into  Christ, 
and  how  that  training  will  secure  the  real  initiation  of  their 
children  into  a  state  of  genuine  discipleship.  Having  this 
aim  therefore,  I  shall  drop  out  of  notice  family  worship  as 
observance,  and  speak  of  it  only  as  the  open  state  of  prayer 
and  communion  with  God  in  the  house.  For,  as  the  greater 
includes  the  less,  we  need  not  be  careful  about  the  less;  but 
only  about  the  greater.  And  I  shall  speak,  in  the  convic¬ 
tion  that  a  great  and  principal  reason  why  the  family  re¬ 
ligion  of  those  who  are  really  Christian  believers,  carries 


FAMILY  PRAYERS 


335 


no  saving  benefit  with  it,  is  that  they  are  content  with  the 
less  when  they  ought  to  claim  the  greater;  maintaining  the 
family  prayers,  in  the  way  of  observance  only,  and  not  as 
an  appeal  of  faith  to  God.  They  imagine  some  impossibil¬ 
ity  perhaps  of  maintaining  the  family  religion  on  so  high  a 
key.  It  will  not  only.be  a  wearisome  and  over-exhaustive 
painstaking  for  themselves,  but  they  sometimes  imagine 
that  the  children,  too,  will  be  finally  drugged  by  such  over¬ 
dosing,  in  the  spiritual  intensities  of  religion,  and  be  only 
the  more  repelled  from  it. 

But  they  greatly  mistake,  in  this  kind  of  judgment,  by 
mistaking  first,  in  their  conception  of  what  is  necessary  to 
the  prevalent  effect  of  the  family  prayers,  and  the  always 
open  state  of  the  house  towards  God.  No  rhapsodies  are 
wanted,  or  flights  of  feeling,  or  heavings  of  passional  inter¬ 
cession,  as  many  are  wont  to  assume,  but  simply  that  there 
should  be  a  sober,  calculated  harmony  between  all  the  plans 
and  appointments  of  life  and  the  prayers  or  petitions  made. 
The  great  difficulty  in  faith,  after  all,  is  to  be  faithful.  God 
is  not  carried  by  shrieks  of  emotion,  but  by  the  honestly 
meant  and  soberly  contrived  ordering  of  things,  to  make 
them  work  in  with,  and,  if  possible,  work  out  the  prayers. 
In  this  view,  let  me  call  your  attention — 

I.  To  the  manner  in  which  prayers,  of  all  kinds,  get  their 
answer  from  God.  Two  things  are  wanted,  as  conditions 
previous  to  the  favoring  answer.  First,  that  the  matter  re¬ 
quested  should  agree  with  God’s  beneficent  aims,  or  the 
ends  of  good  to  which  his  plans  are  built.  Secondly,  that 
the  prayer  should  agree  with  as  many  other  prayers,  and  as 
many  other  circles  of  causes  as  possible;  for  God  is  work¬ 
ing  always  toward  the  largest  harmony,  and  will  not  favor. 


336 


FAMILY  PRAYERS 


therefore,  the  prayers  of  words,  when  every  thing  else  in 
the  life  is  demanding  something  else,  but  will  rather  have 
respect  to  what  has  the  widest  reach  of  things  and  persons 
making  suit  with  it.  It  is  at  this  latter  point  that  prayers 
most  commonly  fail,  viz. :  that  they  are  solitary  and  contrary, 
having  nothing  put  in  agreement  with  them;  as  if  some  one 
person  should  be  praying  for  fair  weather  when  every  body 
else  wants  rain,  and  the  gaping  earth,  and  thirsty  animals, 
and  withering  trees,  are  all  asking  for  it  together.  Or  a 
man,  we  may  conceive,  prays  for  holiness,  getting  off  his 
knees  to  go  and  defraud  his  neighbor;  or  that  he  may  be 
prospered  in  some  plan  that  requires  industry,  and,  by  indo¬ 
lence  and  inattention,  leaves  all  the  causes  of  nature  mak¬ 
ing  suit  against  him.  God  is  for  some  largest  harmony  in 
the  hearing  of  prayers,  as  in  every  thing  else.  All  the  pray¬ 
ers  that  he  will  hear  too  must,  in  some  sense,  be  from  Him¬ 
self,  which  is  the  same  as  to  say  that  they  must  chime  with 
His  ends,  and  the  working  of  his  plans  generally. 

See  how  it  is,  for  example,  in  the  great  realm  of  nature. 
The  first  thing  here  to  be  discovered  is  that  every  thing  re¬ 
quires  every  thing;  or,  if  we  take  the  figure  of  prayer,  that 
all  events  make  suit  for  all.  Omit  any  one,  and  there 
would  be  a  shock  of  discord  felt  in  the  whole  framework. 
As  regards  the  interior  principle  of  causes,  we  know  noth¬ 
ing;  we  only  see  them  all  playing  into  all,  and  all  demand¬ 
ing  all,  and  then,  all  together,  making  suit  for  a  certain 
general  future,  somehow  accordant  with  them  and  their  har¬ 
monies.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  to  hold,  even  scientifically, 
in  the  grand  astronomic  system. of  worlds,  that  all  the  in¬ 
numerable  parts  have  a  perfect  concurrence,  demanding 
exactly  every  thing  that  comes  to  pass,  in  the  motions, 
changes  of  position,  perturbations  of  parts,  and  processions 


FAMILY  PRAYERS 


337 


of  the  whole.  The  principle,  every  thing  for  every  thing 
and  all  together  one,  is  so  exact,  that  every  atom  and  tiniest 
insect  feels  the  touch,  in  fact,  of  every  heaviest,  highest, 
and  remotest  orb,  and  every  such  orb  a  respectiveness  of 
action  reaching  downward,  after  every  such  minim  of  mat¬ 
ter  and  life. 

Such  is  nature,  and  it  would  be  exactly  so,  were  it  not  for 
sin,  in  the  supernatural  order,  viz. :  in  the  wants,  and  works, 
and  prayers,  and  heavenly  gifts  of  God’s  spiritual  empire. 
Sin  harmonizes  with  nothing.  It  is  a  principle  of  general 
discord  with  all  God’s  purposes,  plans,  and  creations;  re¬ 
fusing  to  be  included  in  any  terms  of  intellectual  unity  and 
order.  But  God  is  none  the  less  intent  on  harmony  here, 
that  the  constituent  harmony  of  his  realm  is  broken.  All 
that  He  is  doing  as  a  world’s  Redeemer,  is  to  gather  together 
in  one,  all  the  loosened  elements  of  discord,  and  settle  the 
world  again,  in  everlasting  concord  and  unity.  And  toward 
this  final  issue  he  puts  all  things  working  together  as  for 
the  same  good  issue. 

Thus  it  will  be  found  that  the  Bible  history  shows  a  grand 
convergency  of  all  the  matters  included  in  it,  and  that  a 
mysterious  concert  weaves  all  its  facts  together,  and  keeps 
them  working  toward  the  same  result.  The  ritual  of  Moses, 
and  the  forty  years’  march,  and  all  the  captivities  and  dis¬ 
persions  of  the  people,  and  the  dispersions  of  the  Greek  and 
Roman  languages,  and  all  the  philosophic  exhaustions,  and 
all  the  crumblings  of  the  false  religions,  and  all  the  great 
wars  of  the  Romans,  and  all  the  fortunes  of  empire  deter¬ 
mined  by  those  wars,  and  then  the  universal  pacification  of 
the  world — by  all  these  vast  concurrences  the  world  is  made 
ready,  and  set  waiting  for  Christ  to  be  born.  The  students 
of  history,  looking  over  this  field,  are  astonished  by  the 


338 


FAMILY  PRAYERS 


vastness  of  the  preparation,  and  it  is  to  them,  as  if  they 
heard  all  these  world-wide  powers  voiced  in  prayer  together 
for  the  coming  of  Jesus.  Just  here,  then  was  the  time  for 
him  to  come.  And  thus,  in  fact,  he  came,  in  the  exact 
fullness  of  time,  when  the  largest  harmony  was  asking  for 
him. 

In  the  same  way,  it  will  be  seen,  descending  to  a  lower 
field,  that  every  conversion  to  God  takes  place  when  some 
largest  harmony  demands  it.  Not  always,  or  commonly, 
when  some  friend,  or  wife,  or  good  mother,  prays  it,  wholly 
alone,  but  when  others  join  them,  or  when,  at  least,  there 
is  a  large  concurrence  of  providences  and  causes,  making 
the  same  suit,  and  joining  in  the  general  conspiracy  of  rea¬ 
sons.  And  so  much  is  there  in  this,  that  the  subject  himself 
will  almost  always  feel  a  conviction  of  some  wonderful  con¬ 
junction  of  means,  and  conditions,  and  prayers,  just  then 
brought  together,  to  accomplish  the  otherwise  difficult  or 
impossible  result. 

Other  illustrations,  without  limit,  could  be  cited  from 
the  processes  of  God’s  spiritual  administration;  for  it  is 
always  working  toward  the  largest  harmony.  But  we 
come  directly  to  the  matter  of  prayer  itself.  And  here  we 
meet  the  promise,  first  of  all,  that — “if  we  ask  any  thing 
according  to  his  will  he  heareth  us;”  for  the  design  is  here 
to  draw  the  petitioner  into  the  most  intimate  acquaintance, 
and  bring  him  into  the  most  exact  conformity  with,  God’s 
purposes  and  ends.  And  probably  the  whole  economy  of 
prayer,  or  giving  gifts  to  prayer,  which  might  as  well  be  given 
otherwise  without  prayer,  is  meant  to  promote  this  agree¬ 
ment  of  the  petitioners  with  God.  Next  we  have  that  pecu¬ 
liar  phrasing  of  the  doctrine  of  prayer,  by  Christ,  when  he 
says — “If  two  of  you  shall  agree,  on  earth,  as  touching  any 


FAMILY  PRAYERS 


339 


thing,  that  they  shall  ask,  it  shall  be  done  for  them;”  where 
the  intent  of  the  doctrine  is  to  bring  the  petitioners  into 
the  largest  possible  circle  of  harmony  among  themselves. 
Hence  the  promise  too — “Ye  shall  seek  me  and  find  me,  if 
ye  search  for  me  with  all  your  heart;”  where  the  purpose 
is  to  bring  each  individual  into  the  largest  harmony  with 
himself,  and  not  leave  half  his  dispositions,  or  aspirations, 
or  lustings,  praying  virtually  against  his  prayers.  Hence, 
again  the  command — “Watch  and  pray  lest  ye  enter  into 
temptation;”  where  the  endeavor  is  to  set  the  voluntary 
powers  chiming  with  the  prayers,  and  working  toward  a 
grand  petitional  harmony  with  them.  By  the  whole  econ¬ 
omy  of  prayer,  then,  God  is  working  toward  the  largest, 
most  inclusive  harmony,  and  prayer  is  to  be  successful,  just 
according  to  the  amount  of  concurrency  there  is  in  it. 
First,  there  is  to  be  the  completest  possible  concurrency 
with  God;  then  a  concurrency  of  one  or  two  hundred,  or, 
if  so  it  may  be,  two  hundred  millions  of  petitioners  in  a 
common  suit;  and  then  all  these  are  to  be  total  in  the  suit, 
bringing  all  their  lustings,  affections,  works,  plans,  proper¬ 
ties,  and  self-sacrifices,  into  the  petition;  whereupon  the 
prayer  will  grow  strong,  just  in  proportion  to  the  amount 
of  agreement,  or  concurrence  there  is  in  it. 

Under  this  great  law,  therefore,  prayer,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  has  been  getting  and  will  always  be  getting  more 
strength  by  the  larger  harmonies  it  embodies.  Noah 
prayed  alone  for  his  very  ungodly  times,  and  could  not 
be  heard— the  blood  of  Abel  was  crying  to  God  for  jus¬ 
tice  over  against  him,  and  so  were  all  the  crimes  of  violence 
and  murder  in  his  own  most  bloody  and  cruel  age.  Abra¬ 
ham  prayed  for  Sodom,  but  there  were  no  fifty,  forty, 
thirty,  twenty,  ten,  or,  as  far  as  we  know,  more  than  one 


V 


340 


FAMILY  PRAYERS 


righteous  man  to  pray  with  him;  and  therefore  he  fails, 
obtaining  only  the  safety  of  that  godly  brother’s  family. 
Afterwards  Daniel,  in  a  matter  of  great  peril,  was  able, 
going  to  his  house  to  pray,  to  set  his  three  friends  praying 
with  him,  and  he  found  the  light  on  which  even  his  life  de¬ 
pended.  Still  farther  on,  Esther  set  all  her  countrymen  in 
the  city  praying  and  fasting  with  her,  and  obtained,  in  that 
manner,  the  deliverance  of  her  whole  people,  and  their  pro¬ 
motion  to  honor  in  the  kingdom.  And  so,  again,  the  more 
wonderful  scene  of  power  which  inaugurates  the  church,  on 
the  day  of  Pentecost,  is  distinguished  by  this  principal,  all- 
determining  fact,  that  the  disciples  are  all  with  one  accord 
in  one  place,  praying  for  the  heavenly  gift. 

Not  to  extend  these  illustrations  farther,  we  may  safely 
put  it  down  as  a  conclusion,  that  prayer  wants  the  largest 
possible  harmony  praying  with  it;  or  what  is  the  same,  as 
many  reasons,  and  causes,  and  wants,  and  conditions,  and 
persons,  as  possible,  chiming  in  the  suit  of  it;  so  that  God 
may  answer  it  for  harmony’s  sake,  and  not  against  harmony. 
It  may  seem  that  I  have  led  you  a  long  way  to  reach  this 
conclusion,  especially  when  my  subject  is  family  prayer. 
But  we  shall  now  be  able — 

II.  To  dispatch  that  particular  subject  as  much  more 
briefly;  and  besides,  I  have  been  able  to  hit  upon  no  other 
method,  which  promised  to  unfold  the  real  conditions  of 
family  prayer,  and  show  the  reasons  of  utter  failure  and 
abortiveness  in  it  so  distinctly  and  impressively. 

The  great  infirmity  of  family  prayers,  or  of  what  is  some¬ 
times  called  family  religion,  is  that  it  stands  alone  in  the 
house,  and  has  nothing  put  in  agreement  with  it.  Whereas, 
if  it  is  to  have  any  honest  reality,  as  many  things  as  possi- 


FAMILY  PRAYERS 


341 


ble  should  be  soberly  and  deliberately  put  in  agreement 
with  it;  for  indeed  it  is  a  first  point  of  religion  itself,  that 
by  its  very  nature,  it  rules  presidingly  over  every  thing  de¬ 
sired,  done,  thought,  planned  for,  and  prayed  for,  in  the  life. 
It  is  never  to  finish  itself  up  by  words,  or  word-supplications, 
or  even  by  sacraments;  but  the  whole  custom  of  life  and 
character  must  be  in  it  and  of  it,  by  a  total  consent  of  the 
man.  And  more  depends  on  this,  a  hundred  times,  than 
upon  any  occasional  fervors,  or  passional  flights,  or  agoniz- 
ings.  The  grand  defect  will,  in  almost  all  cases,  be,  in  what 
is  more  deliberate,  viz.:  in  the  want  of  any  downright,  hon¬ 
est,  casting  of  the  family  in  the  type  of  religion,  as  if  that 
were  truly  accepted  as  the  first  thing. 

See  just  what  is  wanted,  by  what  is  so  very  commonly 
not  found.  First  of  all,  the  mere  observance  kind  of  piety, 
that  which  prays  in  the  family  to  keep  up  a  reverent  show, 
or  acknowledgment  of  religion,  is  not  enough.  It  leaves 
every  thing  else  in  the  life  to  be  an  open  space  for  covetous¬ 
ness,  and  all  the  gay  lustings  of  worldly  vanity.  It  even 
leaves  out  prayer;  for  the  saying  prayers  is,  in  no  sense, 
really  the  same  thing  as  to  pray.  Contrary  to  this,  there 
should  be  some  real  prayer,  prayer  for  the  meaning’s  sake, 
and  not  for  the  shell  of  religious  decency  in  which  the  sem¬ 
blance  may  be  kept.  This  latter  kind  looks,  indeed,  for 
no  return  of  blessing  from  God,  but  only  for  a  certain  re¬ 
ligious  effect  accomplished  by  the  drill  of  repetitional  obser¬ 
vance.  There  is  also  another  kind  of  drill  sometimes  at¬ 
tempted  in  the  prayers  of  families,  which  is  much  worse, 
viz.:  when  the  prayer  is  made,  every  morning,  to  hit  this 
or  that  child  in  some  matter  of  disobedience,  or  some  mere 
peccadillo  into  which  he  has  fallen.  Nothing  can  be  more 
irreverent  to  God  than  to  make  the  hour  of  prayer  a  time  of 


342 


FAMILY  PRAYERS 


prison-discipline  for  the  subjects  of  it,  and  nothing  could 
more  certainly  set  them  in  a  fixed  aversion  to  religion  and 
to  every  thing  sacred.  This  kind  of  prayer  prays,  in  fact, 
for  exasperation’s  sake,  and  the  effect  will  correspond. 

In  the  next  place,  what  is  prayed  for  in  the  house  by  the 
father,  is,  how  commonly,  not  prayed  for  by  the  mother 
in  her  family  tastes  and  tempers,  and  is  even  prayed  against, 
in  fact,  by  all  the  instigations  of  appearance,  and  pride,  and 
show,  which  are  raised  by  her  motherly  studies  and  cares. 
And  this,  too,  not  seldom,  when  her  prayers  themselves  are 
burdened  with  much  feeling,  and  bear  the  appearances  of 
much  earnest  longing  for  the  piety  of  her  children.  Her 
prayers  sound  well  in  the  wording,  and  she  verily  thinks 
that  she  means  what  she  asks  for;  but  the  notions  of  stand¬ 
ing  she  is  putting  in  the  head  of  her  son,  or  the  dress  she  is 
just  now  getting  up  for  her  daughter,  pray,  a  hundred  fold 
harder  than  her  prayers,  only  just  the  other  way;  calling 
in  results  of  feeling  and  character  that  are  selfish,  wordly, 
earthly  in  the  last  degree. 

It  is  a  matter  of  the  greatest  importance,  too,  as  regards 
the  successful  training  of  children,  that  they  should  be  in¬ 
ducted  into  ways  and  habits  of  prayer  themselves,  as  very 
frequently  they  are  not.  Sometimes  even  Christian  moth¬ 
ers,  who  pray  much  for  their  children,  never  lead  them  into 
the  practice  of  prayer  for  themselves.  They  are  kept  from 
so  doing,  by  the  supposed  orthodox  belief,  first,  that  their 
children  are  of  course  in  the  gall  of  bitterness,  and  secondly, 
that  such  can  offer  no  prayer,  which  is  not  an  abomination 
to  the  Lord;  in  both  which  conclusions  they  are,  in  fact, 
neither  orthodox  nor  Christian,  and  what  to  the  children, 
at  least,  is  even  worse  than  that,  consent  to  let  them  grow 
up  in  no  personal  habit  of  religion.  How  then  can  they  be 


FAMILY  PRAYERS 


343 


reached  by  the  prayers  of  the  house,  when  they  are  delib¬ 
erately  put  outside  of  the  possibility,  even  of  beginning  to 
pray  for  themselves?  Sometimes  they  are  taught  to  pray 
only  in  the  sense  of  saying  prayers,  or  repeating  some  little 
formula  appropriate  to  their  age.  And  there  is  nothing  ill 
in  this,  if  they  only  do  it  occasionally.  But  the  much  better 
method,  in  general,  is  for  the  mother  to  word  a  simple  prayer 
for  them  herself,  and  let  them  follow  after  in  the  repetition 
of  it,  sentence  by  sentence.  The  prayer  in  this  case,  will 
have  respect  to  the  particular  matters  of  the  day;  what  has 
been  seen,  felt,  enjoyed,  wanted,  suffered,  and  needs  to  be 
forgiven.  Very  soon  the  child  himself,  practiced  in  this 
way,  will  begin  to  drop  in  a  sentence,  here  or  there  that 
comes  directly  out  of  his  feeling,  and  it  will  not  be  long  be¬ 
fore  he  will  be  able  to  word  a  whole  prayer  for  himself,  and 
will  so  be  led  along  into  the  habit  of  praying  with  his  mother, 
and  be  grown,  so  to  speak,  into  the  ruling  desires  and  pray¬ 
ers  of  the  house.  In  this  method,  regularly  pursued,  the 
child  may  be  trained  to  a  perfectly  open  state  in  the  matter 
of  prayer;  so  that  when  the  father  is  absent,  or  is  taken 
away  by  death,  he  will  be  ready,  at  a  very  early  period  on 
his  way  to  manhood,  to  take  his  father’s  place.  There  will 
be  nothing  ghostly,  or  sanctimoniously  separated  from  the 
common  going  on  of  life,  in  the  way  of  prayer  thus  main¬ 
tained.  Having  it  for  the  element  of  childhood,  and  being 
grown  into  the  practice  of  it,  the  very  geniality,  and  sweet¬ 
ness,  and  good  cheer  of  home,  will  seem  to  be  lapped  in  it, 
and  it  will  be  so  far  natural,  that,  if  it  were  taken  away,  the 
course  of  life  itself  would  seem  to  be  even  painfully  unnat¬ 
ural.  A  house  without  a  roof,  would  scarcely  be  a  more 
indifferent  home  than  a  family  state  unsheltered  by  God’s 
friendship,  and  the  sense  of  being  always  rested  in  his  Prov- 


344 


FAMILY  PRAYERS 


idential  care  and  guidance.  No  sweetness  of  life  is  so  in¬ 
dispensable  to  a  family,  brought  up  thus,  in  the  open  state 
with  God,  as  to  have  all  the  cares,  affections,  partings,  sick¬ 
nesses,  afflictions,  prosperities,  marriages,  deaths,  and  all 
kinds  of  works,  habitually  blessed,  by  the  sense  of  God  ap¬ 
pealed  to,  and  consciously  witnessing  in  them. 

But  this  again,  depends  on  yet  another  fact,  where  com¬ 
monly  the  defect  is  manifold  greater  than  it  is  in  the  points 
already  referred  to.  It  is  not  only  necessary  to  the  gen¬ 
uine  state  of  family  religion,  or  the  open  state  of  godly  liv¬ 
ing  in  the  house,  that  the  prayers  should  be  prayers  and 
not  observances,  and  that  both  the  parents  should  be  truly 
in  them  together,  and  the  children  carefully  bred  into  them 
also  as  the  common  joy  of  their  home;  but  it  is  necessary 
also  that  the  practical  ends,  tastes,  plans,  aspirations,  and 
works  of  the  house,  should  all  come  into  the  same  circle  of 
concert,  and  join  their  petition  to  reinforce  the  suit  of  the 
prayers.  And  here,  as  I  have  already  intimated,  is  the  great 
cause  of  failure  in  family  religiom  It  is  not  difficult  to  get 
a  Christian  father  into  such  a  strain  of  desire  for  his  chil¬ 
dren,  that  he  will  faithfully  maintain  the  prayers  of  the 
house,  and  press  himself  at  times  into  great  fervors  in  his 
suit  for  them.  These  fervors  will,  too  often,  be  kindled,  in 
fact,  by  the  conviction  of  really  great  derelictions  of  duty, 
such  as  come  between  the  family  and  all  God’s  blessings 
upon  them.  No,  the  difficult  thing  here  is,  not  to  get  even 
the  fervors  of  prayer,  but  to  get  the  life  itself  and  its  works 
into  that  honest  and  deliberate  agreement  with  the  prayers, 
that  will  give  them  a  genuine  power  and  meaning,  without 
any  such  flights  and  passional  vehemences.  The  difficulty 
is  that  almost  nothing,  in  the  arrangements,  tempers,  and 
practical  ends  of  the  house,  agrees  with  the  prayers.  The 


FAMILY  PRAYERS 


345 


father  prays  in  the  morning  that  his  children  may  grow  up 
in  the  Lord,  and  calls  it  even  the  principal  good  of  their  life, 
that  they  are  to  be  Christians,  living  to  God  and  for  the 
world  to  come.  Then  he  goes  out  into  the  field,  or  the  shop, 
or  the  house  of  trade,  and  delving  there,  all  day,  in  his  gains, 
keeps  praying  from  morning  to  night,  without  knowing  it, 
that  his  family  may  be  rich.  His  plans  and  works,  faith¬ 
fully  seconded  by  an  affectionate  wife,  pull  exactly  con¬ 
trary  to  the  pull  of  his  prayers,  and  to  all  their  common 
teaching  in  religion.  Their  tempers  are  worldly,  and  make 
a  worldly  atmosphere  in  the  house.  Pride,  the  ambition 
of  show  and  social  standing,  envy  of  what  is  above,  jeal¬ 
ousy  of  what  is  below,  follies  of  dress  and  fashion,  and  the 
more  foolish  elation  felt  when  a  son  is  praised,  or  a  daugh¬ 
ter  admired  in  the  matter  of  personal  appearance,  or  what 
is  no  better,  a  manifest  preparing  and  foretasting  of  this 
folly,  when  the  son,  or  daughter,  is  so  young  as  to  be  only 
the  more  certainly  poisoned  by  the  infection  of  it — 0  these 
unspoken,  damning  prayers !  how  many  are  they,  and  how 
totally  do  they  fill  up  the  days !  The  mornings  open  with 
a  reverent,  fervent-sounding  prayer  of  words,  and  then  the 
days  come  after  piling  up  petitions  of  ends,  aims,  tempers, 
passions,  and  works,  that  ask  for  any  thing  and  every  thing, 
but  what  accords  with  the  genuine  rule  of  religion.  The 
prayer  of  the  morning  is  that  the  son,  the  daughter,  all  the 
sons,  all  the  daughters,  may  be  Christian;  and  then  the 
prayers  that  follow  are  for  any  thing  but  that,  or  any  thing, 
in  fact,  most  contrary  to  that.  Is  it  any  wonder,  when  we 
consider  this  common  disagreement  between  the  prayers, 
even  the  fervent  prayers  of  the  family,  and  all  the  other 
concerns,  enjoyments,  and  ends  of  the  common  life  beside, 
that  so  many  fine  shows  of  family  piety  are  yet  followed 


346 


FAMILY  PRAYERS 


by  so  much  of  godless  and  even  reprobate  character,  in  the 
children ! 

Here  then,  my  brethren,  is  the  great  lesson  of  family 
religion;  it  is  that  religion,  being  the  supreme  end  and  law 
of  life,  is  to  have  every  thing  put  in  the  largest  possible  har¬ 
mony  with  it.  And  this  is  to  be  done  by  no  superlative 
fervors,  or  heats  of  piety  and  prayer,  but  by  the  sober, 
honest,  practical  arrangement  of  life  and  its  plans.  Thus, 
if  your  children  are  to  grow  up  into  Christ,  that  is  to  be 
made  their  prayer,  and  the  prayer  of  both  the  parents,  and 
the  prayer  of  all  the  buildings,  migrations,  plans,  toils,  trades, 
and  pleasures  of  the  house.  All  these  are  to  pray,  in  sober 
earnest,  that  the  children,  as  the  practically  best  thing  pos¬ 
sible,  and  most  to  be  desired,  may  be  Christian  in  their 
life.  There  is  no  difficulty  in  forming  a  whole  family  to 
God,  when  there  is  grace  enough  in  the  parents  to  make 
that  really  the  object,  and  set  every  thing  in  the  largest 
harmony  with  it.  The  only  difficulty  is  in  doing  it,  when 
the  prayers  and  the  family  religion  are  one  side  of  every 
thing  else,  in  a  department  by  themselves,  and  the  whole 
body  of  life’s  practical  works  and  ends  is  operating  directly 
against  the  result  desired  and  prayed  for.  Prayer,  in  a 
certain  proper  view  of  it,  is  only  one  of  the  great  causes  of 
the  world,  and  all  the  causes,  natural  as  well  as  supernat¬ 
ural,  are,  in  a  certain  broad  sense,  prayers.  What  is 
wanted,  therefore,  is  to  put  all  the  causes,  all  the  prayers, 
into  a  common  strain  of  endeavor,  reaching  after  a  com¬ 
mon  good,  in  God  and  his  friendship.  The  religious  affini¬ 
ties  of  the  house  then  take  the  mold  of  the  prayers,  and  be¬ 
come  a  kind  of  prayer  themselves.  The  children  grow  into 
faith,  as  it  were,  by  a  process  of  natural  induction — only  it 
will  be  intensely  supernatural,  because  their  faith  is  both 


FAMILY  PRAYERS 


347 


quickened  and  grown  in  the  atmosphere  of  God’s  own 
Spirit,  always  filling  the  house.  He  molds  the  prayers  to 
agreement  with  God’s  will,  and  the  prayers  of  each  to  the 
prayers  of  all,  and  the  works  and  plans  and  tastes  of  all  to 
the  prayers;  and  then,  as  a  consequence,  which  is  also  an 
answer,  fills  the  house  with  his  ingrown  sanctifying  power, 
and  seals  the  members  with  his  seal  of  life. 

Let  us  stop  here  now,  in  our  closing,  and  contemplate  the 
dignity  and  power  of  a  genuine  family  religion,  thus  main¬ 
tained.  Consistency  and  solid  reality,  we  have  seen,  are 
its  great  distinction — the  whole  ordering  of  the  house  is 
worshipful,  and  faithfully  chimes  with  the  prayers.  The 
very  table  is  sanctified  with,  as  well  as  by,  the  blessing  in¬ 
voked  upon  it;  so  that  when  the  house  are  feeding  animal 
enjoyments  and,  so  far,  saying  that  they  are  animals,  they 
do  not  become  such.  Their  sensuality  is  kept  under  by  a 
divine  spirituality  above  it.  It  is  not  so  much  their  bodies 
as  their  souls  that  are  fed.  By  their  holy  charities  and 
prayers,  the  family  property  is  also  sanctified,  and  all  the 
industries  by  which  it  is  obtained.  The  training  of  the  house 
does  not  end  in  money,  the  conversation  is  not  about  money, 
the  plans  are  not  plans  turning  on  the  supreme  good  of 
money,  the  only  losses  dreaded  or  shunned  are  not  losses  of 
money.  Their  thoughts  and  affections  therefore,  mel¬ 
lowed  by  the  family  piety,  do  not  clink  in  their  souls,  as  we 
sometimes  almost  hear  them  with  a  hard-money  sound. 
For  the  love  of  God  penetrates  and  savors,  all  through,  even 
the  works  of  thrift  and  all  the  ennobled  virtues  of  a  genuine 
economy.  The  mental  life  also  is  raised  by  the  family  re¬ 
ligion,  for  they  live  thoughtfully,  as  in  contact  with  God, 
and  all  the  highest  themes  of  existence.  Events,  provi- 


348 


FAMILY  PRAYERS 


dences,  nay  even  things  themselves,  take  on  senses  related 
to  intelligence,  feeling,  and  the  uses  of  faith.  And  so  their 
very  talent  grows  into  volume,  because  it  is  never  impris¬ 
oned,  or  stunted  by  the  external  measures  of  things;  but  is 
led  forth,  always,  into  what  things  signify,  as  related  to  the 
broader  affinities  and  the  half-poetic  life  of  religion.  They 
are  refined,  in  this  manner,  without  any  ambition  to  copy 
the  mannerisms  of  refinement;  refined  by  the  fining  of  their 
intelligence  and  feeling.  They  are  not  emasculated  by  their 
culture,  but  grow  manlier  in  it;  because  of  the  good  and 
great  thoughts,  and  high  subjects,  into  which  they  are 
trained  by  the  sober,  honest  piety  of  their  practice. 

The  family  is  thus  exalted,  every  way,  by  the  family  re¬ 
ligion;  because  there  is  such  reality  and  all-diffusive  har¬ 
mony  in  the  scope  of  it.  In  the  prayers  of  the  day  it  re¬ 
calls,  in  one  way  or  another  and  with  filial  reverence,  the 
ancestors  that  have  gone  before,  and  looks  hopefully  on  to 
the  great  reunion  of  the  future.  Its  births  are  so  many 
arrivals,  or  presentations,  at  the  gate  of  eternity,  its  bap¬ 
tisms  and  baptismal  namings  are  titles  recorded  in  the 
family  register  of  God;  its  deaths  are  only  the  migrations 
of  so  many  into  life,  to  be  followed  by  the  migration  of  all; 
and  the  sense  of  a  good  future,  to  be  their  common  heritage, 
imparts  a  trustful,  quietly  cheerful  air  to  their  waiting. 
For  that  bright  gathering  of  the  house,  after  the  storms  are 
over,  gilds  their  adversities  and  sicknesses,  and  kindles  a 
beautiful  expectancy  in  their  prayers — keeps  them  looking 
up  and  away,  without  any  instigations  of  asceticism,  or  false 
antipathy  to  the  world.  The  godly  father  dwells  in  such  a 
house,  even  as  the  apostle  pictures  Abraham,  dwelling  in 
tabernacles  with  Isaac  and  Jacob,  heirs  with  him  of  the  same 
promise,  viz. :  that  of  a  city  that  hath  foundations.  Heirs 


FAMILY  PRAYERS 


349 


with  him — not  heirs  of  his  fee-simple,  not  legatees  in  his 
will,  wraiting  patiently  or  impatiently  for  him  to  die,  but 
heirs  with  him  of  a  great  angelic  future  that  rests  in  char¬ 
acter  and  fruits  of  well  doing,  in  which  they  bless,  and  by 
mankind  as  well  as  God,  are  blessed. 

What  scene  of  family  dignity  is  more  to  be  admired? 
The  highest  splendors  of  wealth  and  show,  have  but  a  feeble 
glow-worm  look  in  the  comparison — a  pale,  faint  glimmer 
of  light,  a  phosphorescent  halo,  enveloping  what  is  only  a 
worm.  Even  the  poor  laboring  man,  thanking  God,  at  his 
table,  for  the  food  he  earned  by  the  toil  of  yesterday,  singing 
still,  each  morning,  in  his  family  hymn,  of  the  glorious 
rest  at  hand,  moving  on  thitherward  with  his  children,  by 
single  day’s  journeys  of  prayer  and  praise,  teaching  them, 
even  as  the  eagles  do  their  young,  to  spread  their  wings  with 
him  and  rise — this  man,  I  say,  is  the  prince  of  God  in  his 
house,  and  the  poor  garb,  in  which  he  kneels,  outshines  the 
robes  of  palaces. 

The  beauty  of  such  family  scenes  has  not  escaped  the 
notice  of  poetry  itself,  or  even  of  mere  worldly  observation. 
But  we  must  not,  for  a  moment,  forget  that  the  charm  of 
all  such  family  pictures  depends  on  that  sound  reality  of 
worship,  which  puts  every  thing  in  the  house  in  keeping 
with  the  prayers,  and  carries  back  the  meaning  of  the  pray¬ 
ers  into  every  thing  in  the  house.  A  flourish  of  prayer  in 
the  morning,  followed  by  all  flourishings  of  vanity  and  pros¬ 
perous  selfishness,  for  the  rest  of  the  day,  will  not  answer. 
We  look  in  upon  the  Christian  family,  where  every  thing 
is  on  a  footing  of  religion,  and  we  see  them  around  their 
own  quiet  hearth  and  table,  away  from  the  great  public 
world  and  its  strifes,  with  a  priest  of  their  own  to  lead  them. 
They  are  knit  together  in  ties  of  love  that  make  them  one; 


350 


FAMILY  PRAYERS 


even  as  they  are  fed  and  clothed  out  of  the  same  fund,  in¬ 
terested  in  the  same  possessions,  partakers  in  the  same  suc¬ 
cesses  and  losses,  suffering  together  in  the  same  sorrows, 
animated  each  by  hopes  that  respect  the  future  benefit  of 
all.  Into  such  a  circle  and  scene  it  is  that  religion  comes, 
each  day,  to  obtain  a  grace  of  well-doing  for  the  day.  And 
it  comes  not  by  itself,  as  in  the  public  assembly,  not  in  a 
manner  that  is  one  side  of  life  and  its  common  affairs.  There 
is  no  pretense,  no  show,  no  toilet  practice  going  before,  no 
reference  of  thought  to  fashion,  or  dress,  or  appearance. 
It  leads  in  the  day,  as  the  dawn  leads  in  the  morning.  It 
blends  a  heavenly  gratitude  with  the  joys  of  the  table;  it 
breathes  a  cheerful  sense  of  God  into  all  the  works  and  tem¬ 
pers  of  the  house;  it  softens  the  pillow  for  rest  when  the  day 
is  done.  And  so  the  religion  of  the  house  is  life  itself,  the 
life  of  life;  and  having  always  been  observed,  it  becomes  an 
integral  part  even  of  existence,  leaving  no  feeling  that  in  a 
proper  family  it  could  ever  have  been  otherwise.  A  family 
state,  maintained  without  a  fire,  would  not  seem  to  be  more 
impossible  or  colder.  Home  and  religion  are  kindred  words;  \ 
names  both  of  love  and  reverence;  home,  because  it  is  the 
seat  of  religion;  religion,  because  it  is  the  sacred  element 
of  home. 

This  training,  in  short,  of  a  genuine,  practically  all-em¬ 
bracing,  all-imbuing  family  religion,  makes  the  families  so 
many  little  churches,  only  they  are  as  much  better,  in  many 
points,  as  they  are  more  private,  closer  to  the  life  of  infancy, 
and  more  completely  blended  with  the  common  affairs  of 
life.  Here  it  is  that  chastity,  modesty,  temperance,  indus¬ 
try,  truth — all  the  virtues  that  give  beauty,  and  worth, 
and  majesty,  to  character,  get  their  root.  Here  it  is,  above 
all,  that  they  who  are  born  into  life,  are  led  up,  in  their 


FAMILY  PRAYERS 


351 


gracious  training,  to  knit  the  green  tendrils  of  existence  to 
God.  And  so,  in  all  the  future  scenes  of  duty,  and  wrong, 
and  grief,  through  which  they  are  to  pass,  it  will  be  found 
that  they  were  furnished  here  with  supplies  of  grace,  and 
armed  with  shields  of  confidence  from  God,  to  meet  every 
encounter,  bear  every  burden,  and  maintain  every  kind  of 
well  doing,  till  the  victory  of  life  is  won. 

Holding,  now,  this  conviction,  as  Christian  parents,  of 
the  importance  of  a  true  family  religion,  allow  yourselves 
never  to  forget  the  condition  which  alone  makes  it  of  so 
great  value,  viz.:  that  it  has  such  scope  as  to  include  and 
harmonize  all  the  ways,  and  works,  and  cares  of  the  house. 
See  that  you  plan  to  be,  in  your  undertakings,  just  what 
you  pray  to  be  in  your  prayers.  Set  the  general  concert  of 
your  affairs  in  God’s  own  order,  to  accomplish  only  what  is 
agreeable  to  his  will,  so  to  be  always  praying  with  you,  and 
the  prophet’s  rich  valley,  teeming  with  all  fruits  of  abun¬ 
dance  and  luxury,  will  but  feebly  represent  the  unfailing, 
never  blighted,  always  fruitful,  piety  of  your  children. 


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